There’s so much happening on an Android phone that it can be hard trying to keep up. With clever use of sounds and notifications, you can ensure that you never miss an important event. At any given moment, the typical Android smartphone will be waiting for incoming calls, text messages, emails from multiple accounts, instant messages, Twitter alerts and probably a few more other events.
It’s what makes Android so great, but if you pick up your phone everytime it beeps, you will never get any work done. Thankfully, it is possible to tame the notifications to ensure that you don’t get overloaded but never miss anything important.
Step 1: Setting the Default profile
To begin, you need to adjust the global settings. In Android 2.2, go into Settings >> Sound. Here you can set a general sound profile for incoming calls and notifications. “Normal” will have the sound turned on. “Silent” has all sounds turned off, and “Vibrate” has sound off but will vibrate. Also, tick the “Vibrate” option to ensure that the phone vibrates for any notification.
Step 2: SMS settings
Now your base settings are configured, you need to start adjusting the settings for specific applications. Open the Messages app >> Menu >> Settings and scroll down to “Received Messages”. Please do take note that changes you make here will override some of the settings that you have set up in Step 1. You will want to be alerted to incoming text messages so tick “Play notification sound” and “Vibrate”. Now, tap on “Notification Sound” and choose a sound that is different from the default one. This will help you differentiate between an incoming text and another alert.
Step 3: Mail settings
Next repeat the process for other important apps. As per Step 2, please do take note that changes you make here will override the base settings set in Step 1. In Gmail, hit Menu >> More >> Settings and scroll down to “Notification Settings”. Your options here depend on how many mails you get. If it is a constant stream, then you might want to turn sounds and vibrations off. If you have more than one account, you might want to have alerts for one, and not for the others. Either way, use different alert sounds to help you identify the alert.
Step 4: App Settings
Most apps that update in the background will give you the option of customizing how you want the notifications to work. You do not want to be overloaded with alerts, so it’s a good idea to turn notifications on for direct messages but not for all types of event notifications from apps.
Step 5: Sound Manager
For even greater control, you may wish to download the free Sound Manager app from Android Market. This enables you to control very precisely different types of sound. You can access the download page for Sound Manager here.
