Notification sounds
Give your push notifications a sound of their own, and choose the sound notifications play by default
Notification sounds
Go to Notification sounds in starti.app ManagerBy default, a push notification plays the phone's own sound. Under Notification sounds you can upload your own sounds, choose which sound notifications play by default, and pick a specific sound when you send a notification.
Notification sounds is a feature we switch on for your brand. If you don't see Notification sounds in the menu, get in touch.
How it works
A notification sound lives inside the app itself. The phone doesn't download the sound when the notification arrives; it plays it from the app. That means:
- You upload the sound in starti.app Manager.
- The sound is included in the next version of the app you release.
- Once the new version is out in the App Store and Google Play, notifications play the sound.
Until the new version is out, notifications play the phone's own sound. The same goes for users who haven't updated the app yet. The notification still arrives as normal; it just doesn't have your sound yet.
Upload a sound
Open Notification sounds
Go to Notification sounds under Push notifications in the menu.
Choose a sound file
Click Upload sound and choose the file. The sound must be:
- a WAV file
- at most 1 MB
- at most 30 seconds long (iPhones don't play longer sounds)
Some audio editors save WAV files in an encoding iPhones can't play. If starti.app Manager rejects your file for that reason, save it again as PCM (16-bit) in your audio editor.
Name the sound
The name is what you pick the sound by. It may only contain lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, so starti.app Manager adjusts it for you, e.g. "Ding Dong" becomes ding_dong. If a sound with the same name already exists, it is replaced.
Release a new version of the app
The sound is now listed as Awaiting new app version. Once you have released a new version of the app and the stores have approved it, the status changes to Ready.
Ready on iOS or Ready on Android means the new version is only out on one of the platforms so far.
Choose the default sound
At the top of the page, choose the Default sound. It plays on every notification where the sender didn't choose another sound, including those you send through the API and the welcome flow's notifications. Choose Phone's default sound to go back to the phone's own sound.
Pick a sound when you send
Once your brand has at least one sound, the form under Send notification gets a field where you choose the sound:
- Default sound plays the default sound you chose.
- Phone's default sound plays the phone's own sound, even if you chose another default sound.
- Choosing one of your own sounds plays that sound.
Sounds that aren't in the released app yet are marked (awaiting new app version).
Rename or delete a sound
Use the buttons next to the sound to play, rename or delete it.
- Rename: The sound gets a new name, and that counts as a new sound. It has to be included in a new version of the app before it plays under the new name.
- Delete: The sound is removed from the next version of the app. The current version keeps playing it until the new one is out. If the sound was your default sound, the default goes back to the phone's own sound.