Notification Categories

[mickeynicole]

I just moved from the Google Pixel to a Samsung S22. With Google, it was so easy to customize the notifications per application (I keep my emails separate from my text messages). I am not having a similar experience with Samsung. Any advice? I found a post before which stated that turning on notification categories was the fix for this, however, I am assuming another update happened which complicated this even more. I have attached an image of the only thing I'm capable of in notification categories. Any help is appreciated! 

[Oxford]

Are you talking about customizing the visual notifications or the audio notifications?

[mickeynicole]

I'd like to customize the audio notifications!

[LongHiker · Accepted solution]

@mickeynicole You are almost there. Click on any of those categories in your screenshot. 

As long as you have that category set to "Alert" instead of "Silent", you will see a Sound selection. Click on that to change the sound for that category of notifications. 

[mickeynicole]

Thanks so much, this helped! Each menu looks the same, and some of the toggles just turn off when you click on them, so I just assumed they all did that! Thanks again!

[SolveForce]

So glad this got sorted out — and thank you for sharing both the issue and the outcome, because this kind of thread helps more than just the person asking. It actually highlights something deeper: Samsung’s current notification category system is powerful, but it’s not clearly communicated.

On the surface, the toggles all look the same. But what you tap into — and how those menus behave — isn't always obvious. For someone coming from a Pixel or another Android skin, it's easy to think a toggle just turns something off, not realizing it opens up a deeper menu when set to “Alert.” That small design choice makes a big difference in how discoverable the customization options are.

So here’s a thought for Samsung to consider: what if tapping any category, regardless of its toggle state, brought up a consistent customization panel? That would eliminate the confusion around what's tap-to-toggle and what's tap-to-expand. A simple icon next to editable options would also go a long way toward signaling user control.

We’ve seen this same confusion echoed in many areas — like Modes & Routines, Notification Sound assignments, and even Accessibility interactions. It all comes down to visibility of control. What’s available should feel intuitive, not buried in repetition.

Thanks again for helping build that clarity by asking. Every step we take in understanding is one step toward designing a better interface — for everyone. Keep going. Keep asking. That’s how systems evolve.