Having a separate ringtone or notification sound for different apps like Instagram is a blessing and the best way to differentiate between apps without checking your phone. For example, what if you want to make a distinction between an incoming standard cellular call and WhatsApp call? You can simply change the WhatsApp ringtone on Android and use a workaround on iOS. We explain how to do it below.
Can you set ringtones on WhatsApp?
You can set any ringtone on WhatsApp in WhatsApp Notification settings on Android. On iOS, you can change ringtones for individual contacts and work your way around the fact that the custom ringtone functionality in third-party apps is not available by default. Luckily, you can change notification sounds for WhatsApp messages and Group Messages on both platforms in the same manner.
1. How to change the WhatsApp ringtone on your phone
As one might assume, setting a separate ringtone for third-party apps is much easier to do on Android than on iOS. If you look into WhatsApp in-app settings on Android, you can easily find an option to change the ringtone for incoming calls and enable or disable vibration. If your WhatsApp isn’t ringing on Android, changing a ringtone might help, too.
Here’s how to change the WhatsApp ringtone on your Android:
- Open WhatsApp.
- Tap on the 3-dots menu and open Settings.
- Open Notifications.
- Scroll to the bottom and, under Calls, select Ringtone. The default ringtone is the system ringtone used for regular incoming calls.
- Choose a ringtone from Sound Picker or add custom ringtones from local storage.
On the other hand, it’s not possible to set a separate ringtone for WhatsApp on an iPhone. WhatsApp for iOS will use only the default ringtone and your only option is to set separate ringtones for contacts. As WhatsApp Support suggests. This is not the worse solution if you speak with a few contacts over WhatsApp exclusively and regularly.
Here’s how to set a different ringtone for a contact on your iPhone:
- Open Phone.
- Select Contacts from the bottom.
- Open a contact with whom you mostly converse via WhatsApp voice calls.
- Tap Edit from the top right corner.
- Tap Ringtone.
- Choose one of the ringtones.
- Tap Done.
If you do this for all contacts you talk to on WhatsApp, it would be sort of synonymous with WhatsApp having a separate ringtone. At the moment, that’s the best we can do on iOS. You can even make some iPhone contacts ring on silent, but this sadly doesn’t apply to WhatsApp and other third-party apps.
2. How to change notification sound on WhatsApp
In comparison to ringtones, you can change notification sounds on both Android and iOS without any mental gymnastics and workarounds. This can be done in WhatsApp settings and you have an option to set separate notification sounds for messages and group messages.
Here’s how to change WhatsApp notification sound on Android and iOS:
- Open WhatsApp.
- Tap on the 3-dots menu and open Settings on Android. On iOS, tap Settings from the bottom tab.
- Select Notifications.
- Under Messages, select Notification tone on Android. On iOS, choose Sound under Message Notifications.
- Choose any of the available tones/notification sounds. You need to tap Save on iOS to apply changes.
- You can do the same for Group messages.
You can import notification sounds on Android while you can’t do the same on iOS. Still, you have a choice and it’s better than the ringtone status we talked about in the previous section. With that said, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts, questions, or suggestions in the comments section below. Your feedback is more than welcome.
