S9 Text message ringtone

[Jarvo]

I can’t seem to assign different tunes to individual Contacts messages anymore but still can with their Call ringtone. Am I doing something wrong, any help TIA.

[Tangoman65 · Accepted solution]

That is what you should check your updates for messages in. You may have already had it and havent realised or its a steady roll out, I'm not sure. But the rest of my post should point you in the direction if the update is on your phone already. 

 This is the latest version I have. If yours is the same you should be abke to asign notification tones to each thread. 

Regards Tango.

[Arlette3]

 I am doing a major happy dance!!!!

Tonight my GS7 updated, so just for a lark, I checked the message settings and there it was!!!!! The text notification of each contact can again be custom set. I AM SO HAPPY!!!!! I have been following this thread for months and basically gave up on any changes. I don't know if it switches back to default if the whole thread is deleted. I haven't checked, but I don't care since I don't delete the threads of my important contacts anyway. I'm just over the moon I will know who is texting me now and know when to respond to the most important ones. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Praise God! Arlette 

[gmw4259]

Arlette, I don't think this was what this whole thread was about. Weren't you able to set individual tones per conversation in the Messages app all along?

On the S9, we've had the ability for a long time to set a separate tone IN THE MESSAGES APP, PER CONVERSATION.  What we lost was the ability to set a separate message tone for a person IN THE CONTACTS APP.  While I also never delete conversations of people I care about, many people DO delete conversations so having the ability (as we used to on different models) to set a messages tone in CONTACTS  for a person for any other messaging app to use, matters. Also, if the people you care about are also in a group conversation, when they reply in that group conversation - even if you've set a tone for them in your individual conversation with them - you don't get 'their' tone, you get the general one. That's an issue we didn't have when we could set messaging tones in the Contacts app.

[Arlette3]

<<<Weren't you able to set individual tones per conversation in the Messages app all along?>>>

No, I was not. I searched all over in the message settings before when it was being described in this discussion thread, and there was no customization feature for notifications in my message app. I can see that it may be a bit annoying to have to reset it for the contact if the text thread is deleted, but that is so minor compared to not having the custom capability at all! Yes, it is ridiculous that it can't be customized from the contact, especially since you can customize the vibration...really? Who needs a custom vibration? I can't tell one from the other. But the customer text notification did something VERY useful. But for now, I am thrilled with what I have.

[gmw4259]

Please note that this thread title says "S9". Until your message people were discussing what features the S9 does or does not have regarding contact message tones. While I agree with you that what the S9 has in the messages app for my purposes is good enough (tones for conversations), I have learned from the thread here that other people use different features of the phone that makes it more important to have message tones for contacts and I'm not going to claim that what's good enough for me should be good enough for them.

[userfBGSsCd4Me]

As I've said before, anybody who comes I here now claiming that this is fixed without a totally addressing the real complaint is either a bot or a Samsung employee trying to derail the topic I stead of having it addressed. End of the day, Samsung has refused to properly fix this for a year and now into a second operating system. I will be dumping this phone at contract end. They lost a customer here. I cant support a company that blatantly lies to me.

[BigBrad]

---

@Arlette3 wrote:

 I am doing a major happy dance!!!!

Tonight my GS7 updated, so just for a lark, I checked the message settings and there it was!!!!! The text notification of each contact can again be custom set. I AM SO HAPPY!!!!! I have been following this thread for months and basically gave up on any changes. I don't know if it switches back to default if the whole thread is deleted. I haven't checked, but I don't care since I don't delete the threads of my important contacts anyway. I'm just over the moon I will know who is texting me now and know when to respond to the most important ones. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Praise God! Arlette 

---

Ok... I haven't jumped back into this thread in a couple of weeks, so here I am.  Yes, their "Fix" is a fairly good stop gap measure to fix a problem that they created.  As you mentioned, yes it does switch back to the default when and if you delete the thread.  I usually don't delete the threads of my important contacts either, but that is not the only problem.  

My pharmacy sends me a text message when it's time for my meds to be renewed.  It's all computer driven.  So I don't need my regular text message tone (Think - Close Encounters of the Third Kind) when a computer sends me an automated message.  I HAD them set to a quiet simple beep so that I knew there was no rush to answer a computer back.  And I see no need to maintain copies of all those texts between me and my pharmacy.  On the other hand, my Alarm company was set with a loud, obnoxious tone to let me know that there was and EMERGENCY that needed my attention RIGHT THEN.  But now, I have to maintain all those messages. 

The other bug.  Group messages.  (I love bringing this one up... Again.. )  Say I make the following assignments to the threads of conversations.   

Tone A to Friend A

Tone B to Friend B 

Tone C to Friend C

I send a message to Friend A and I get Friend A's tone in return.  The same with B and with C.  BUT, if I send a GROUP message to Friend A, Friend B, and Friend C, and then Friend A responds to the group, I get DEFAULT tone.  If Friend B responds to the group, I get DEFAULT tone.  If Friend C responds to the group, I get DEFAULT tone.  And most of my text messages go to either groups of Friends, Family Members, Co-workers, Team Members.....  

Sure, I can assign a tone to the thread of the Group, but I have to maintain that entire thread and I can't tell who is responding without looking at the phone.  Before, I could tell, do I need to get it NOW or can it wait a minute?  Is it my wife texting me or one of my daughters?  Is it my co-worker?  My good friend?  My Boss?  Is it my alarm company telling me my house is on fire, or is it my pharmacy saying that my meds are ready to be picked up?  Do I need to grab my phone NOW or can it wait a few minutes to get back to?  

Simple fix?  Return the feature to the CONTACTS APP where you assigned a custom text message tone to the Contact and not the thread.  From what I've been able to find, it is a ONE UI feature and not a PIE feature.  I checked a friends LG and it was still in his contacts listing.  

And now that you have woken the bear again, I am returning to my cave and hibernate again for a while..  

[Arlette3]

Wow Big Brad, You really give your text app a work out! I can see how this ***** up by Samsung has affected you more than I. I can't imagine why they don't just fix it properly, especialky when they have many other useless features no one would ever use imho. Sorry to have poked the bear ;).

[BigBrad]

No problem.. LOL

[cblackmon10]

This works, but ONLY for the active message thread.  If you delete the thread, it defaults back to the default message tone.  This is ok for customization on the fly, but it is not a replacement for the original custome message tone, that is related to the individual contact, not the message thread.  

I'd much rather have it the way it used to be, and not just limied to customizing the thread, which is an ok, but minor feature, that required additional steps to actively operate.  

[Arlette3]

Hi, where is Samsung updates? I'm on and S7

[Tangoman65]

If you check back I've put some screen shots on to help people.

[Arlette3]

yes, I got the info now. I'll see if I can give it a go, thanks!
Arlette

[Arlette3]

My message app is 4.4.20.10 and it says it is the latest version. No customizations on threads. 😞

[Tangoman65]

I'm in the uk. Us hasn't been updated. Also as you are on a phone lower than an S9 then the update may be delayed. Not sure. The only suggestion could be to email samsung cust serv direct . Hope it helps.

[Arlette3]

Thank you much! Guess I'll have to be patient. *sigh* I have messaged and emailed Samsung Canada. I just don't get how they didn't realize this was such an important feature. Such a daft move. But is seems like it made things easier for them, which ends up being more important than what is best for their customers. Sigh...and I have been a loyal Galaxy user for a long time.  A

[AndroidGuru · Accepted solution]

There is an another option if you dont have update for app yet. Download and install apk manually from Apkmirror. Just download the newest one and give it a try. It works for me on S7/S7 Edge, S8/S8+ and also S9/S9+. Let me know if it helps. Regards.

Edit: ON S8 4.4.30.5 works aswell.

[Matthew0_0]

There's an issue with the install. My phone refuses to implement the update.

[Adrianag817]

This didn't work for me on my s9 plus.... Kept giving me an error page 

[BigBrad]

Well, I wrote a nice letter to Samsung Tech Support and I got a wonderful (Confusing) response....   I must admit, it is a beautiful job of dancing around the question.  

Hello Brad,

Thank you for contacting Samsung Technical Support.

We understand that you want a setting in which the message tones are assigned to specific contact and won't reset when a message thread is deleted. We will provide you with the required information.

Before the Oreo update, whenever you set a message tone for contacts it will be set to custom even if you delete the message. This is because previously the customized text tone is set for contacts only and not for the messages. So whenever you delete any message also the setting will be shown as custom.

Where as now(after Oreo update), The option to set customized text tone for contacts is removed and no longer available. The customized text tone is only introduced for the messages app. So whenever you delete any message the Setting will be set to default.

Our Samsung support team is working on customized message tones. Hopefully, Samsung might release an update in the future.

I hope I was helpful today. I'd be grateful if you could take a quick survey; your support and encouragement will keep us motivated. To start the survey, please click on "Start survey here" at the end of this email. Please ensure that your browser settings and pop-up blockers allow the pop-ups to display the survey window.

If you wish to chat, email or call us for any questions, please go to the "Contact Us" option available on the right hand side of the support page.

Thank you for choosing Samsung products.

Regards,
*********

[Tangoman65]

Well I hope you have them both barrels in the survey and told them they suck! From it will be in the next update to maybe in a future update just back pedals yet again. 

They are losing all confidence if their customers had any left at all that is!

[Heidi2227]

And watch it wont come back until they real ease the 10 so people will have to buy the 10 ..I'm going to apple. .they are not taking my money for *****ty service