Custom Alert/Push notification sound

Apps & Clients
1

Does iOS 7 allow you to select a custom sound for a particular apps alert? For example, I have my phone next to my bed and my kids window opens. I would to be awakened with a particular sound so I know its smart things and not just another push notification from some other application.

2

I do not think iOS allows this yet. It is something that we have talked about - changing the SmartThings default alert sound. So many features are competing with it however. Adding your voice to the voting :slight_smile:

6 Likes
3

The android app allowed me to make a custom notification sound for ST. I also really appreciate that the light notification is different too!

I know ios allows a custom sound for apps but I believe itā€™s not something set by the user, just the developer. I have lots of ios apps that make their own special noise.

4

Iā€™ve got lots of iOS apps that make custom alert sounds when the app is in the foreground but the only apps that can be in the background and still make custom alert sounds seem to appleā€™s apps.

5

The Pushover App (https://pushover.net) is an example of alert sounds that are unique to them available in its settings on iOS so it is doable. You can even set a default sound and a High Priority Sound. It also has a pretty good API for building custom alerts and push notifications as well as a DND option and much more! Oh and there is also a desktop option and a plugin to use growl on a mac.

I use it for the notifications (via IFTTT) to get the ones only I want to have rather than them all go through the SmartThings App as my wife (yes still working on the WAF) and other family members donā€™t want to get as many notifications as I do from the system. The latency issue in IFTTT doesnā€™t seem to be an issue when using a recipe for this as I think ST pushes the information pretty quickly to IFTTT without it being a poll which usually is around 15 minutes or so thus pretty useless for instant alerts such as changing HUE bulb colors on an event. But for cases where your using the ST channel to run recipes its great.

Something else it gives the option for is Group Delivery (http://updates.pushover.net/post/58172624706/introducing-delivery-groups) which I am considering exploring for specific notifications of multiple people.

I have also used Boxcar for this but its not as reliable (but also has custom alert sounds within the app).

6

Letā€™s face it, some things are just more important than others.

Iā€™d like to see the SmartThings app settings provide three ā€œslotsā€ for assigning notification sounds, with each having a toggle to vibrate or not. Then, in SmartApps we could have:

sendPush() = sendPush1() = first or default notification sound
sendPush2() = second notification sound
sendPush3() = well, you get the idea.

And while the above is certainly feasible, perhaps a better way would be to have another input for notification prefs where any notification sound on the device (or at least the three set above) can be selected along with the message string:

section( "Notifications" ) {
		input "sendPushMessage", "enum", title: "Send a push notification?", metadata:[values:["Yes", "No"]], required: false
		input "message", "text", title: "Message to send...", required: false
		input "sound", "enum", title: "Notification Sound", required: false, metadata: [values: [SoundsOnDevice() OR SoundsInSettings()]]
	}

and if absent, the default is used.

Seems neither of these methods would break any legacy apps, but would go along way in improving the usefulness of notifications.

4 Likes
7

One again resurrecting a thread. Perhaps we can make this more granular (on Android). For instance, I would like a motion alarm to use one notification sound, and a door opening to make another sound. It should be pretty easy to integrate this into Android ecosystem.

1 Like
8

I have given up on this in favor of having Tasker reading my SmartThings notifications. If you really want sounds you could pretty much use the same profile and just have Tasker play different sounds based on the notification.

1 Like
9

Iā€™m sorry that youā€™ve given up (Iā€™m shocked), but the Tasker workaround is a great idea.

10

It isnā€™t a work around. It is the preferred behavior (at least for me), and one of the primary reasons why I am on Android.

1 Like
11

I can totally accept that. Tasker is a complete necessity for me as well - itā€™s been absolutely invaluable, and itā€™s one of many reasons why theyā€™ll take my Android phone out of my cold dead hands. :slight_smile:

12

Iā€™ve thought of a way to have a custom alert on IOS 8.1 when a text message comes in from SmartThings. So far (knock on woodā€¦) all of the text messages coming to my phone have the same number. I created a contact with that number and customized the alert for it.

Now, when a text comes in from SmartThings, a blaring horn sounds!

This does assume that the address used for text messages from SmartThings is consistent.

13

Please create a custom alert sound just like every single iOS app should have

14

Resurrecting this thread again.

I agree that Tasker is awesome/indispensable but the SmartThings app really needs to fix this. They should upate the UI to be able to play custom tones or local mp3ā€™s for various smart apps. Iā€™m assuming smart apps themselves canā€™t have mp3ā€™s built into them because they run on the cloud and you wouldnā€™t want to send that over every time. But they should find a way to have it downloaded once and used then on the SmartThings Android app. I used to do my own app for GCM alerts and it was really nice to have doorbells, foot steps, alarms, canned speach-to-text and other sounds. I guess I too will use the Tasker work around for now, but I hope they fix this the right way eventually.

1 Like
15

sorryā€¦resurrecting once moreā€¦

So, is it true then that itā€™s not possible to disable the vibration for SmartThings notificationsā€¦or to even change the notification sound it uses?

I donā€™t necessarily mind the sound, or want to change it (now), but if I ever do want to, how?

I HATE the fact that it vibrates IF I donā€™t have a choice to disable it.
During testing (which, in some cases, depending on the device or scenario) can take days, just the vibes from ST alone can take a pretty big hit on my battery. I know I sound ridiculous, but stillā€¦how to disable?

16

In the current app I see under My Account an option to turn on or off Notification Vibrate.

1 Like
17

Yep. I see it now too. Thanks (and thanks to ST!). :slight_smile:

18

Just ā€˜Likingā€™ your post this time around, because I see that I forgot to do so the last time I found myself here.
Funny thing isā€¦the only reason Iā€™m here again is because I forgotā€¦then started going NUTS with all the vibrations (I guess it must need to be reconfigured every time the app is newly installed on a new phoneā€¦just switched phones a while back)ā€¦came here, and saw that Iā€™ve already been here for this before lol

Wouldnā€™t it be neat if SmartThings would save our configuration info from the app so that it follows us to new phones, etc?

1 Like
19

If you are on iOS and are Jailbroken, just install ā€œCustomNotificationSoundā€ in Cydia.

20

How come IOS app like PushOver have custom push notification sounds but SmartThings App does not? Itā€™s possible, just needs to be added as an option. When I was a Vera user you could send push notifications through pushover and set which sound you wanted it to play. Door chimes I had as one sound and etc for different types of notifications. Intrusion alerts were a siren for example. Itā€™s possible, they just need to add the option.