Google says Android will separate notifications and ringtone volume

For the past few versions, ringtone and notification volume were controlled with a single slider, but today Google indicated how to change that in Android 13 QPR3 or 14.

With Android 13 QPR2 Beta 1 in December, we discovered an ADB command that created separate sliders for “Ring volume” and “Notification volume” in Settings > Sound & vibration menu. This joined the media, call, and alarm sound for a total of five sliders.

QPR2 reached stable in March without the separate volume sliders, while there are currently no changes in QPR3 (beta 3). The ADB command continues to work (as shown in the screenshots below):

adb shell device_config systemui volume_separate_notification set as true

on saturdayGoogle has updated[Feature Request] Please allow separate soundbars for notification sounds and ringtones! Entry in Android issue tracker as of December 2021 with the following: “Requested feature will be available in a future version.” With 47 comments, the status has now changed to “Fixed.”

Looking at the roadmap, it’s not clear when the notification/ringtone volume change will land in the stable build of Android 13 QPR3, due in June, or Android 14. It’s not currently available on 13 QPR3 Beta 3 or 14 Beta 1.1. An upcoming release in Android 14, and a subsequent beta, seems more likely at this point in the development cycle, but it’s still technically possible for Android 13, which will stop getting major updates after the June release.

This would be a quality of life improvement for those who don’t want to hear incoming calls (because they prefer vibration) but want to hear notifications, or vice versa.

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