How to make a price alert ring like an alarm on Android

By the Crypto Alerts & Alarms team · Published 28 October 2026 · Facts checked 28 October 2026

A price alert is usually a notification, so it plays on Android’s notification volume and makes no sound when the phone is on vibrate or mute. An alarm has a volume of its own. You can give one app’s alerts a louder sound in Android’s settings, but that changes the sound, not the volume it plays on: to ring like an alarm, an app has to sound the alert as one.

Why an alert stays quiet when an alarm rings

Android keeps separate volumes for different kinds of sound. Press a volume button and open the menu, and Google lists them as separate sliders: media, call, ring, notification and alarm volume (on Android 12 and later). Vibrate and mute are set on the ringer, and Google describes them in terms of calls and notifications: on vibrate, “phone calls and notifications vibrate”; on mute, they “are silent”.

A price alert from an exchange or a tracker usually arrives as a notification, so it follows the notification rules. An alarm plays on the alarm volume instead, which is why an app that sounds its alerts as alarms, such as Crypto Alerts & Alarms, rings through silent mode. A louder notification sound only helps while the phone is set to ring.

A few settings quiet even alarms. A Do Not Disturb mode can block them (how Do Not Disturb exceptions work), and on Samsung phones such as the Galaxy S23 series, the accessibility option “Mute all sound”, in Samsung’s words, mutes “all audio output, including alarms, notifications, and media”.

Sources, checked 28 October 2026: Google’s Android Help and Pixel Help on volume, sound and vibrate, and Android’s source code, which leaves the alarm volume out of vibrate and mute.

Give one app’s alerts a louder sound of their own

Since Android 8, every notification belongs to a category that the app creates, and from then on the category is yours to adjust. Android’s developer documentation puts it plainly: once an app creates a category, “the user has complete control at that point.” If an app keeps its price alerts in a category of their own, you can give just those alerts a sound you will notice.

On a Pixel (Google’s steps):

1. Open Settings and tap Notifications, then App notifications, then the app.
2. Tap Notification categories, then the category its alerts arrive in.
3. Tap Sound, pick a sound and tap Save.

On a Samsung Galaxy (Samsung’s steps):

1. Open Settings and tap Apps, then the app.
2. Tap Notifications, then the notification category (Samsung’s example is General notifications).
3. Tap Sound and choose one.

On the same screen, check that the category alerts you rather than staying silent (on silent, in Google’s words, “your phone won’t make a sound or vibrate”), and turn on Pop on screen if you want a banner while you use the phone. Then raise the notification volume. Menus differ by phone model and Android version; these steps come from Google’s and Samsung’s help pages, checked 28 October 2026.

In Crypto Alerts & Alarms, Android lists two categories. Standard Alerts plays your phone’s notification sound and is the one to change for push alerts. Critical Alarms belongs to the alarm, whose tone you choose inside the app, because the app plays it itself.

Apps that turn other apps’ notifications into alarms

Some Android apps watch the notifications that other apps post and ring an alarm when one matches words you choose. To read other apps’ notifications, an app needs notification access, and Android warns before you grant it (its settings text, checked 28 October 2026): such an app “will be able to read all notifications, including personal information such as contact names, photos, and the text of messages you receive”, and can “snooze or dismiss notifications or take action on buttons in notifications, including answering phone calls”. If the same phone receives the login codes for your exchange account, weigh that before handing so much access to an alarm.

Binance, Coinbase and TradingView alerts

These alerts reach an Android phone as notifications, so the category steps above are the tools you have; whether an app gives its price alerts a category of their own is up to the app. What each one’s help pages say, checked 28 October 2026:

• Binance: its price alert help page (updated 6 January 2026) describes no sound setting and asks you to make sure you “have enabled notifications for Binance App on your phone settings”. More in Binance price alerts.
• Coinbase: its help centre, in the latest archived copy (2 October 2025), described alerts on “large swings in price” that could be “pushed to your phone” or shown only in the app, and only “for assets on your watchlist”. More in Coinbase price alerts.
• TradingView: its help centre says the Alert Volume setting “is available on the website and not in the mobile or desktop apps”. More in TradingView alerts on Android.

An alert that rings as a real alarm

The other way is an alert app that sounds its alerts as alarms itself. In Crypto Alerts & Alarms, an Android app for crypto price alerts, this is how the alarm works, from the app’s code:

• Volume: it plays on the phone’s alarm volume, so it rings through silent mode. While it rings, the alarm volume goes to the level you set for that alert, from 10% to 100%, and your own level comes back when it stops.
• Sound: your phone’s own alarm sound, or one of five tones in the app: Classic, Digital, Urgent, Beep or Clock.
• How long: it loops until you press Stop, swipe its notification away, or the auto-stop ends it after 5, 15 or 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes (30 seconds unless you change it).
• On a locked phone: it takes over the screen with a Stop button. On Android 14 and later that needs the full-screen permission: what “allow full screen notifications” means.
• Other audio: it asks music or a podcast playing on the phone to pause while it rings, and hands the sound back when it stops.

Alerts are checked on our servers, not on your phone, so the alarm comes with the app closed. Battery saving can still hold it back on some phones, as the app itself warns; see delayed notifications, phone by phone. To set one up, follow the price alarm guide.

Common questions

Last updated: 28 October 2026. Android menus and other apps’ help pages change. If anything here is out of date, email support@appsfromzero.com and we will correct it.