Droid: Change SMS/Email sounds?

[DjArcadian]

Is there a setting or App that allows me to change the sound that plays when I receive either an SMS or Email? I'd rather the phone say "Text Message Received" rather than just beep. Same for the email notification.

[extorian]

You don't actually need an app for that.

To change the email notification sound, go to Menu -> Settings -> Sound and Display -> Notification Ringtone, and set it.

To change the SMS notification sound, go to Messages -> Menu -> Settings -> Select Ringtone.

I can also highly recommend the app Missed Call. It allows you to set the LED colour and flash rate, the vibrate pattern, the ringtone, for calls, messages, calendar notifications, etc, and have different settings for calls/messages from different contacts. However, it can't change any of that for emails, but you could use it to set your SMS notifications to something really customised.

[PhilMize]

You don't actually need an app for that.
I can also highly recommend the app Missed Call. It allows you to set the LED colour and flash rate, the vibrate pattern, the ringtone, for calls, messages, calendar notifications, etc, and have different settings for calls/messages from different contacts. However, it can't change any of that for emails, but you could use it to set your SMS notifications to something really customised.


I'm downloading that, sounds awesome. Thanx for the heads up!

[Vimes]

http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f28/ringtone-install-28305/

Some info in that thread should help you out. Each application usually has a notification setting, where you can select the ring tone to be used. I found a batch of talking notifications a couple of years ago, that I transfer from phone to phone, and modify as required, however there seem to be wider variety now available, just google for talking ringtones or you can use the following link to make your own. You will need to edit the wave file in something like Audacity to add the initial alarm tone, but that's fairly easy to do.

http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

[DjArcadian]

Can I import custom tones? I'd like text messages to simple say "Text Message" .

[extorian]

Yes.

There's a program many of us use called Rings Extended. Basically, whenever you choose a tone for anything (ringtone, notification tone, etc) it'll ask you if you want to use one of the Android System tones, or a Rings Extended tone. If you click Rings Extended, then it'll allow you to choose any compatible audio file (e.g. MP3) anywhere on the SD card.

[DjArcadian]

Yes.

There's a program many of us use called Rings Extended. Basically, whenever you choose a tone for anything (ringtone, notification tone, etc) it'll ask you if you want to use one of the Android System tones, or a Rings Extended tone. If you click Rings Extended, then it'll allow you to choose any compatible audio file (e.g. MP3) anywhere on the SD card.

Thanks. So this begs the question. Where can I download an MP3 that says "Text Message Received" or something similar?

[extorian]

You've got me there...

However there is are "You've got mail!" type MP3s from the 1998 film starring Tom Hanks (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/) all over the place. Maybe you can find a similar text message one on the same kind of websites.

LOL - imagine hearing "You've got mail!" these days every time you get a new spam.

[Vimes]

Just go to this website:

http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

Select an appropriate voice and enter in the required message. Select Speak to test it out and then Download the wav file. You can either convert it to MP3 or just use the .wav directly, either way copy the file to your SD card in a top level folder named "notifications". That file is then visible in the selection of the notification ringtone.

[extorian]

Thanks for that link! I imagined there would be something like that when I wrote my previous reply, but I was (stupidly) looking for an Android app that did TTS to MP3 rather than an online service.

[DjArcadian]

Thanks everyone! Now my phone tells me that I received a text message!

[Steven1]

Here's a follow-up question: How can I make my Droid play a different sound (for each contact), depending on who sent me the text?

That is, when John sends me a text message, I want it to play: "A new message from John!" But when someone sends me a message who isn't in my contact list, it should just play the default sound.

[BadBoy]

You've got me there...

However there is are "You've got mail!" type MP3s from the 1998 film starring Tom Hanks (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/) all over the place. Maybe you can find a similar text message one on the same kind of websites.

LOL - imagine hearing "You've got mail!" these days every time you get a new spam.
This is exactly what I have had mine set to ever since I first got my G1, lmao

[Vimes]

Looking in the latest SDK, the only ringtone attribute is a single custom ringtone for the contact, which I assume is when a phone call is received from that contact. Although it does not explicitly say that the default message notification can be overwritten, I doubt if that applies. So by default, it does not seem as if the base contact application is going to support custom message notifications.

Having said that, it is relatively easy to catch the incoming message intent and query a database for custom ringtones. That's a similar functionality to SMS Popup, which catches the intent and retrieves the contacts Photo for display.

Might be worthwhile looking at the SMS / Contact replacement apps to see if they provide that functionality.

[extorian]

Missed Call does this. It's free, and I consider it to be one of the most "must have" apps on the Market.

You can set led colour, flash rate, ring tone, vibrate pattern, and other stuff, for phone calls (incoming and missed) and SMS messages, and a whole load of other things like battery low, bluetooth on and/or connected etc....

Anyway - you can also have set all of the above on a per-contact basis. So, if you want, you can have a cow mooing when your ex texts you, and a dog barking when your gf texts you, etc...

[Vimes]

Should have remembered about Missed Call, as I had it installed when I had a G1, but removed it when I got a Magic, as the Trackball blinks when an call is missed, unacknowledged text or calendar event are present. It had also started to act a bit flaky for me, so that was another reason to uninstall it.

I just searched for the latest version, as the per contact notifications sound interesting, however it is not available for me, assume that is because the minimum API is 1.6, and I still have 1.5.

[extorian]

It could well by the minimum version, as you say.

It really sucks that some mobile networks aren't pushing out these upgrades. Although, I don't know why Missed Call would have a minimum API of 1.5. There are no additional features added in ages, and it's relatively easy to make apps compatible with multiple versions of Android if they don't require a version specific API (such as the toggling of various settings changed hugely between 1.1 and 1.5 making most toggle type apps incompatible).

You could always email the developer and ask if either there's a 1.5 version around?