First, reveal the category controls
On supported Galaxy phones, open Settings → Notifications → Advanced settings and enable Manage notification categories for each app. Return to Notifications, open App notifications and choose the app. Its category section may now be available. This is the first setting to check when you cannot find separate notification sounds.
Samsung notes that menus vary by model, software and provider. Some apps do not expose a category section. This guide addresses a missing menu; for the broader setup process, see different notification sounds for Android apps.
Find a sound inside a category
- In the selected app's notification settings, open Notification categories if available.
- Choose the relevant category, enable its notifications and select Alert rather than Silent.
- Open Sound and choose an available tone.
The menu path and limitations above follow Samsung's notification guide. Some apps place sound controls inside their own settings instead.
Why one app can have several sound settings
Android groups notifications into channels, which the user interface calls categories. An app might separate conversations from recommendations, for example. The app creates these groups, and the user controls their alert behaviour. Different apps can therefore offer different lists; there is no universal set of category names.
This distinction explains why changing one sound may leave another notification unchanged. You may have edited a category that the incoming alert does not use. Android's channel documentation describes this relationship between app-defined channels and user-controlled sound settings.
Test the setting you actually changed
Our suggested check is to choose an easily recognisable built-in tone first. Leave the app, then ask a friend for a normal test message or trigger the relevant ordinary notification. Note whether the notification appears and whether the expected sound plays. Keep the test away from emergency, banking or other time-critical alerts.
If the sound is unchanged, record which category you edited and which event you tested. For example, a new message and a promotional notification are different events. Avoid changing every category at once; that makes it harder to identify which change helped.
A downloaded audio file is a separate question from a hidden settings menu. Establish that an included sound works before troubleshooting a custom file. Our ringtone and notification sound comparison helps distinguish the controls, while downloaded sound troubleshooting covers file visibility.
If the menu is still missing
Compare the affected app with another app that offers categories. Write down your Galaxy model, One UI version, app name and the exact screen you reach before seeking model-specific help. That is more useful than assuming the phone has the same interface as a screenshot from another model.
Do not reset the phone or clear app data just to reveal this menu. Start by checking the documented setting and the app's own notification preferences. The presence of a global category toggle does not guarantee that every app exposes identical controls.
Reviewed against the linked Samsung and Android documentation on 30 September 2026. Illustrations are conceptual; no universal real-device test is claimed.