Inconsistent sound Google Messages

[cwinkler]

Switched to Google Messages to see how I like it. Getting inconsistent sound notifications, and can't figure out why. All notifications allowed (except turned off vibrate) and volume is turned up. I'll get the screen popup notification, but no sound notification. What might cause this? Phone is NOT on DND. Just this morning got one notification to sound, but at least 2 others did not.

[notforhire]

full disclosure: I'm hard of hearing (very) and wear hearing aids. when wearing my hearing aids, all notifications come through the aids, not the phone. it doesn't happen every time, though. in my case, I've chalked it up to either connectivity or competing sounds around me. however, I always feel the notification vibration on my Watch 6 Classic, so I don't pay much attention to it. are you receiving proper notification sounds from your other apps?

[cwinkler]

My other apps seem ok. And Messages sometimes works. Just turned off notification for samsung Messages thinking maybe it was interference

[notforhire · Accepted solution]

a couple of things you can play with: wipe your cache partition from the recovery menu on your phone, clear cache and data in the Google Messages app, force stop, then simply open the app again and start using it (you won't lose your messages)

[cwinkler]

Have wiped phone cache and app cache. What do I lose when I wipe app data? Have also restarted phone. Haven't received a text to test yet.

[notforhire]

you don't lose your messages. some of your settings? yes. wait to see if wiping the cache partition has helped, along with the suggestions from @realaud

[realaud]

What you lose when you wipe the app data would be your settings, but not your messages. Some apps you would have to log in again, but not anything Google related, since you are logged in to your Google account on your phone. 

[realaud]

Question: Did you set a default sound for the incoming messages, or did you set the sound within a particular message?  If you did it in a message, that's the default sound for that conversation.  You have to go to the app settings, choose the default sound for the app by selecting it for incoming messages.  You should go through the other categories and make sure the notifications are set for "alert" not "silent" and make sure there is a sound supplied. The default sound should have carried over to the other categories, but you can change the sound for different categories if you choose.  If it did not carry over, just choose the sound. 

If you want a particular sound for a particular conversation/contact, choose the contact/conversation you want to have a different alert for. You do that by going to your messages inbox, selecting the 3 dot menu at the top right and choosing details.  In the section for notifications, you can choose a different sound from the default.  Thereafter the sounds for that contact/conversation will be different from the default.

Setup within an app that has many notification categories is a pia but, thankfully, you only have to do it once.

[cwinkler]

Went into app and set default sound, not a particular conversation. This morning was specifically not receiving sound notification from banking OTP. Thanks for tips on changing conversation sounds.

[realaud]

As I said, do make sure all the categories are set to alert. I had found most of them to be on silent by default for some reason.
You probably don't need to bother with the messages for web section, unless you are going to use that component.