Is your phone not making any sound when receiving calls or notifications? Your phone might be on mute or your notification volume is low. On Android, there are various mute options ranging from muting all notifications to muting specific notifications from an app. In this article, we will go through all possible mute options to unmute calls and notifications on Samsung Galaxy phones and Android in general.
Table of Contents
1. Unmute From Quick Settings Panel
A common reason for not hearing sound for any calls or notifications on Android is that your phone might be in Mute mode. To unmute your phone, open the quick settings panel and tap the volume toggle to turn it into the Sound option from Mute or Vibrate.
If you cannot find the volume icon in the quick settings panel, go to the last page of the quick settings panel and tap on the Plus icon to add the toggle. On some phones, you have to tap the pencil icon to add toggles. Now to add the volume toggle, just drag and drop it into quick settings.
Some phones like OnePlus also have a physical volume switcher. Toggle the physical switch from the Mute option to the Sound option.
2. Using the Volume Buttons
From quick settings, you can only toggle the device between the Sound, Mute, and Vibrate modes. Even if you do select the sound option, there can be a chance your ringtone and notification volume are low. To increase the volume, press any volume button. With that, you should be able to see the volume slider on the screen. Now tap the meatballs menu on the volume slider to open the volume control panel. Here increase the volume by moving the ringtone and notification slider upwards.
3. Unmute From Settings App
If you are unable to change the volume or the volume mode from the quick settings or using the volume button, you can always do it from the Settings app. Open the Settings app > Sounds and Vibration. From here, you can change volume modes between Mute, Sound, and Vibrate. Just tap on the Sound option to select it.
You can also change the respective volume by opening the Ringtone and Notification sound menu.
Other than that, there may be a chance that your ringtone or the notification sound that you have set might be too low. Try changing the ringtone or the notification sound if you think that is the case. You can do that from the same Ringtone and Notification settings.
4. From the Notification Panel
If you are not hearing sounds only for specific notifications, open the notification panel, tap, and hold on to the notification that you are not getting the sound. On most Android phones, you should be able to change the Notification alert from Silent to Default.
On Samsung, tap on the Settings option. In Settings, you can change it from Silent to Allow sound and vibration.
That’s it, now whenever you receive a notification from that app, you should get the notification sound.
5. Unmute App Notifications on Samsung
Samsung phones allow users to set notifications for specific apps to Silent. You can change it from the notifications panel if that app’s notification is available. But to check and change it for any app, go to Settings.
Open the Settings app and then select Apps. Here, from the list of apps, select the app that you are not getting notification sound.
Then select the Notifications option and change the Alerts to Allow sound and vibration option from Silent.
Also Read: 5 Ways to Change Alarm Sound on Samsung Galaxy Phones
6. Unmute Notification Channels/Notification Categories
Unlike Samsung Galaxy phones, many Android phones don’t have the option to change the alert mode for specific apps. But all the popular Android phones including Samsung support Notification Channels. Each app supports various channels of notifications like marketing, updates, offers, downloads, likes, subscriptions, etc. For example, if the Likes notification channel on Instagram is set to Silent, your phone will make a sound for all Instagram notifications except when you receive a like.
To unmute notification channels, open Settings> Apps > select the app > Notifications. On most Android phones, you should see the list of notification channels here.
On Samsung, scroll down and open the Notification Categories option to check the channels.
Here just tap on the channel where you are getting silent notifications. Then change the mode to Alert from Silent.
7. Turn off the Do Not Disturb Mode
Every Android Do Not Disturb mode works slightly differently. For example, Pixel, Motorola, and OnePlus completely block notifications. Whereas Samsung and some Chinese OEMs will only Mute the notifications. But whatever Android device you are using, make sure that you have disabled the Do Not Disturb mode in order to receive sound notifications.
You can turn off Do Not Disturb mode from the Quick Settings panel or from the Settings app. On Samsung, open the Settings app > Notifications > Do Not Disturb and turn it off. The location of the option can be different from other OEMs.
8. Turn off Modes and Routines on Samsung
Modes and Routines are Samsung’s automation features that can change your system settings automatically including the sound settings. For example, you can set it so as to enable sleep mode when it’s 10 PM. So it will be enabled automatically at the set time or place and then change the system settings according to your settings in that mode. If you set any mode to turn the sound mode to Mute, then whenever that mode turns on, it will automatically turn your phone to Mute. For info on using the Modes option on Samsung, check out this article.
Whereas Routines is an automation tool to follow a set of instructions if certain criteria are met. For example, you can set it up so that if you are in the office location, Mute will be turned on or if you open Netflix, then DND gets enabled.
To turn off these Modes and Routines, Open Settings app > Modes and Routines.
If any mode is turned on, you should find the On icon beside it. Just tap on the icon to turn it off.
Now tap on the Routines option at the bottom to turn it off. Here if there is any routine running in the background, it will place the routine icon under the Running section.
Just tap on the icon and then select the Stop option. It should show all routines running in the background.
If any mode or routine turns on repeatedly, you can tap on them to open it. Then tap on the kebab menu (three-dot menu) and select the Delete option to remove it completely.
9. From Accessibility Settings
Most phones offer audio-related accessibility settings. If none of the above options are working as intended, accessibility settings can be one reason. On Samsung phones, there is a Mute all sounds option which blocks all sounds from ringtones to system.
To check if the Mute all sounds option is enabled, open Settings app > Accessibility > Hearing enhancements and make sure that the toggle beside the Mute all sounds option is disabled.
We could not find any such options on Pixel phones, but if you are using any other version of Android, open the Accessibility settings and check for audio-related features that can be causing the issue.
10. Check for Third-Party Apps
On Android, even third-party apps can control many system actions. If you have installed any apps such as Tasker, you need to tweak the settings in those apps to unmute the device properly. Or else, you will be able to unmute the device, but these apps will keep muting the device.
11. Restart or Update the Phone
If none of the above options are not solving the issue. Make sure that your phone is running on the latest version. To update, open the Settings app > Software update > Download and install. Here you should be able to install the latest version if available. If there’s no update available, then restart the device and try to unmute it again.
Unmuting on Samsung and Android
The above-mentioned methods should work if you are receiving notifications without sound. But if you are not getting notifications from apps at all, here is how to fix Android apps not sending notifications.
