What you need to know
- Google is likely to introduce a separate volume control slider for ringtones and notifications soon.
- The change has been spotted on Android’s issue tracker from December 2021.
- It is expected to arrive with the stable release of Android 13 QPR3 or the arrival of Android 14.
Google is finally untying the ringtone and notification volume control sliders from each other in response to a growing number of user requests, removing a long-standing restriction that many users found annoying.
The separate sliders could arrive with Android 14, as indicated by a Google representative in a comment under an issue tracker that started in December 2021 (via 9to5Google). The feature request has been marked as "fixed," suggesting that it is coming down the line.
Google has been working on separating the notification and ringtone volume sliders on Android phones. This feature has been a highly requested improvement, and it was first spotted in Android 13 QPR2 beta 1, though it was not enabled by default. Although QPR2 hit stable release last March, the feature was still a no-show.
9to5 notes that no changes have been spotted on Android 13 QPR3 Beta 3 or Android 14 Beta 1.1 that would indicate the arrival of separate volume control sliders.
When it becomes public, you'll eventually be able to mute the ringtone for incoming calls and set a higher volume for notifications, and vice versa, depending on your priorities. This functionality was available in earlier versions of Android back in the day, but Google eventually removed it and combined the ringtone and notification volumes.
As a result, adjusting one would affect the other, which can be frustrating for users who want to be able to adjust the volume of their notifications without affecting the volume of their ringtone. On the other hand, many of the best Samsung phones have always included this functionality.
It is not yet clear when this feature will be released, but it is expected to be available in Android 14 or the stable release of Android 13 QPR3 in June. The Google employee only mentioned that the "requested feature will be available in a future build."
This will finally allow users to fine-tune their audio settings more precisely, and it's one that has been a long time coming.
