Customize ringing/notification sound

[Luraktinus]

Some users (including me) find this high pitched sound unappealing, please let the users change it or go an octave lower. thank you --Lue

[ashledombos]

Here is an issue that has been running for 5 years, that could be easily solved, or at least have a simple workaround, (it seems much simpler than dealing with forked threads, for instance) but yet ignored and causing a hemorrhage of users… Why ?

[Ryonez]

Seems like the devtools method no longer works.

[autoteelar]

Here is an issue that has been running for 5 years, that could be easily solved, or at least have a simple workaround, (it seems much simpler than dealing with forked threads, for instance) but yet ignored and causing a hemorrhage of users… Why ?

yeah genuinely, schildichat already added a custom noise feature because the default one was just too ear piercingly loud and annoying...

i think its about time element did too.

the fact this has been ignored for 5 years, does not look good on the element devs in relation to the community. if lots of people want something that is genuinely beneficial, there is no reason to not do it, this would take like 5 minutes to code tops.

[MurzNN]

@kittykat Can you please recheck if this feature is highlighted in the Element Roadmap here https://github.com/vector-im/roadmap/projects/1 ? If not, could you please add and arrange it, to not lost this crucial but missing feature?

[jimkoen]

This is still happening, only it's part of the design team's (large) workload

At what point are we allowed to make snarky comments about what seems to be willful ignorance?

I understand that for Element it is hard to change - what is essentially - part of their brand.

It's okay, other brands have made workplace anxiety part of their brand culture as well!

some friends have noted that the sound is annoying, gives anxiety, or is downright unbearable on their ears.

I am literally waiting for that one GTK based project to reach a usable state on Mac OSX, then I'm ditching element forever. It's absolutely beyond me why you'd sacrifice a user bade over some atrocious, and quite honestly barely noticeable brand design.

This isn't aimed at you personally ShadowJonathan and more meant as a dig towards the eternally busy design team.

[asdil12]

As the package maintainer of the openSUSE rpm package of element I wonder if I could make it possible to let users replace the audio file (using a symlink - maybe via update-alternatives?).

The question is if that file is within the asar bundle or outside of it.

[autoteelar]

This is still happening, only it's part of the design team's (large) workload

At what point are we allowed to make snarky comments about what seems to be willful ignorance?

I understand that for Element it is hard to change - what is essentially - part of their brand.

It's okay, other brands have made workplace anxiety part of their brand culture as well!

some friends have noted that the sound is annoying, gives anxiety, or is downright unbearable on their ears.

I am literally waiting for that one GTK based project to reach a usable state on Mac OSX, then I'm ditching element forever. It's absolutely beyond me why you'd sacrifice a user bade over some atrocious, and quite honestly barely noticeable brand design.

This isn't aimed at you personally ShadowJonathan and more meant as a dig towards the eternally busy design team.

i can give you some workarounds if you want.

1. compiling it yourself but replacin the files before compiling
2. use schildichat, its element but the desktop app is way better basically
3. idk about that one GTK one, if you could share im mildly interested, there is a QT one called Nheko but i didnt really like it either.

if you host your own element web the mp3 files for notifications can be changed pretty much any time yourself

[autoteelar]

As the package maintainer of the openSUSE rpm package of element I wonder if I could make it possible to let users replace the audio file (using a symlink - maybe via update-alternatives?).

The question is if that file is within the asar bundle or outside of it.

from the looks of it its literally just mp3 and ogg files, you could just allow the user to change that file via gui, its extremely simple to do

[autoteelar]

maybe something like this?

[autoteelar]

this guys screenshot example uses wav, but personally i would use mp3 or flac

[NintendoManiac64]

this guys screenshot example uses wav, but personally i would use mp3 or flac

Or OGG vorbis or Opus...

Or really just anything that Chromium supports via HTML5 (including M4A／AAC) considering that Electron = Chromium.

[autoteelar]

yeah those 3 are also really good, i think it should support as many file types as possible.

[ShadowJonathan]

I encountered this issue again with some friends signing up for matrix through element getting met by this notification sound.

Design and Product, how it is YET STILL that this issue is unaddressed, for multiple years, while by your own prioritisation rules you should have at least dropped other projects by now because this issue has O-Occasional and S-Major on it?

I want to once again remind y'all of https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/20286, which is an easy-enough stop-gap solution to at least allow users to change this without having to change local files, which some of those friends had to do, out of necessity, as the notification sound was extremely distressing to them.

[Alkalurops]

I deactivated all sounds for Element and only see new messages arriving once in a while when I check for other messages incoming (Threema, iMessage, …).

[viasux]

I encountered this issue again with some friends signing up for matrix through element getting met by this notification sound.

Design and Product, how it is YET STILL that this issue is unaddressed, for multiple years, while by your own prioritisation rules you should have at least dropped other projects by now because this issue has O-Occasional and S-Major on it?

I want to once again remind y'all of #20286, which is an easy-enough stop-gap solution to at least allow users to change this without having to change local files, which some of those friends had to do, out of necessity, as the notification sound was extremely distressing to them.

honestly just use https://github.com/cinnyapp/cinny/

[Ryonez]

honestly just use cinnyapp/cinny

Sadly it doesn't have feature parity with Element. No threads is one example.

[vertigo220]

I have to agree it's pretty insane this issue has been outstanding for this long, considering how simple it is and that Matrix/Element are trying to become more widespread yet this is a fairly big barrier to that, again one that can very easily and quickly be fixed. It's been almost two years since a new sound was proposed, and all it would take would be for the default sound file to be replaced by the new one in the build, yet even that's not been done. What possible, valid reason could there be for this? Now I have to go and do it manually, something a user shouldn't have to do, and most users won't want or even know how to do, because it feels like it's going to give me a heart attack every time I get a call.

Also, this is a duplicate of #5031, and at least some of those that gave that issue a thumbs up didn't do so here, which means there's even more in favor of this than reflected here, and that's not to mention all those that have likely tried Element and trashed it due to this without even bothering to come make an issue, as I think most users of programs don't participate on GitHub.

[ShadowJonathan]

FWIW this issue is about the notification sound and the ringing sound, i dont think it should be dedupped into #5031 for that reason, as I'm primarily agitated by the notification sound

[vertigo220]

Fair enough, and not necessarily saying it should be, though it could be if that one were expanded to involve both. Bottom line is they both deal with essentially the same issue, which is that the sounds in general, both ringtone and notifications, are not very good, as evidenced by the significant number of people participating in these issues and #2105, and they need to at least be changed to something better and ideally allow the user to change them to whatever they want. I actually think if anything that issue, despite being first, should be merged into this one, since this one is much more active in both discussion and thumbs up. But I really mentioned it not to say it was a duplicate so much as to say this problem is fragmented and, as such, has more support for a resolution than any one issue would suggest.

[amunrarara]

Honestly, the less stressful ringtone proposed still gives me a heart attack when it rings, particularly when I'm wearing headphones. It honestly couldn't be that difficult to add a GUI option.

Anyone interested in opening their own PR for this?

[ShadowJonathan]

@amunrarara https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/20286

[kenwuuu]

I'm working on adding the ability for users to change their message notification sound, it will sync across devices. Not working on VOIP ringtone. Will provide updates in the next couple days, just wrapping up.

[amunrarara]

Great, thanks for your work!

[TristanCottam]

@nadonomy Any updates on that notification redesign? Is it still ongoing?

It's been just under 3 years since your last reply on the subject; If you could just give us a sign that you're still alive and well, and let us know what's going on, it would be much appreciated.

[eslerm]

Please updates the tags of this issue.

Less stressful ringtone #5031 was closed as a duplicate to this issue. #5031 is a O-Frequent accessibility (A11Y) issue.

Please update the tags to include O-Frequent and A11y.

[robintown]

Thanks for raising, @eslerm, I've reopened https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/5031 since we consider it important that the product use a more pleasant default ringtone, regardless of the outcome of the feature request tracked in this issue.

[KaKi87]

Here's an urgent implementation proposal : make the app look for an eventual message.mp3/message.ogg file at ~/.config/riot/%userprofile%/riot before loading the default one.

This should be doable in a matter of minutes, requires zero GUI changes and solves the overwrite on upgrade issue.

Thanks

[t3chguy]

This should be doable in a matter of minutes, requires zero GUI changes and solves the overwrite on upgrade issue.

You're more than welcome to do it in that case, you make it sound so easy.

[KaKi87]

Well, it should be drastically easier than creating a ringtones CRUD database and GUI, that's probably why such a thing still hasn't been implemented, which I understand, but at the risk of repeating others, this issue really has unbearable consequences for impacted users, which is why I'm making this suggestion for a temporary solution with hope to see it happen as soon as possible.

[t3chguy]

@KaKi87 except due to the strict sandboxing you can't access filesystem resources, only things within the asar archives. Not to mention is entirely disallowed in a web browser.

[KaKi87]

Oh, the file is accessed directly from the renderer process... Well, setting up a CRUD will require serving the file from the main process anyway.

[piegamesde]

@KaKi87 if you urgently want a temporary solution and are hosting your own Element Web instances, simply patching it can be as short as a handful of lines: https://git.maralorn.de/nixos-config/tree/overlays/element-web/default.nix

Personally, I don't want any temporary hacks, I'd like to see a proper implementation of the feature instead.

[t3chguy]

Well, setting up a CRUD will require serving the file from the main process anyway.

Nope, it'd be stored in Matrix, so its accessible from all your clients. Just like all user-configurable avatars are.

[KaKi87]

you urgently want a temporary solution and are hosting your own Element Web instances

No, I'm using the desktop app, same as everyone here, otherwise we wouldn't be talking filesystem.

I'd like to see a proper implementation of the feature instead.

So do I, but it didn't happen in years, which, again, is the reason why I'm suggesting a temporary solution, so that it could happen sooner.

Nope, it'd be stored in Matrix, so its accessible from all your clients. Just like all user-configurable avatars are.

That's overkill, would take even more time, and will disadvantage users of outdated homeservers.

[t3chguy]

That's overkill, would take even more time, and will disadvantage users of outdated homeservers.

If your homeserver is so outdated that it doesn't support MXC then you won't be able to use it with any Element version from the past 3 years. No special support is needed beyond Matrix Media Repository (MXC) which already backs avatars and in-chat media.

Its not overkill, its exactly how the Room Settings > Notifications sound override already functions today, so arguably copy and pasting that code is the opposite of overkill.

[KaKi87]

So, this endpoint allows uploading arbitrary files without being an avatar nor a message attachment ?

And even so, the file would have to have a unique name which would have to be stored somewhere server-side that doesn't exist either.

Unless there's some kind of key-value store available as well ?

[ThiefMaster]

I would NOT want to be forced to use the same ringtone on all devices! So storing the file in Matrix cool, always syncing the choice not cool.

[t3chguy]

So, this endpoint allows uploading arbitrary files without being an avatar nor a message attachment ?

Yes, in an encrypted messenger the server has no way of telling what you upload, nor can it see references to it, because its encrypted.

And even so, the file would have to have a unique name which would have to be stored somewhere server-side that doesn't exist either.

Sure it does. account_data.

Unless there's some kind of key-value store available as well ?

I suggest playing with /devtools one of these days in Element Web/Desktop, everything is extensible.

I would NOT want to be forced to use the same ringtone on all devices! So storing the file in Matrix cool, always syncing the choice not cool.

Whether per-device granularity is enabled for this would be up to the product team

[KaKi87]

Alright, considering the back-end's extensibility, server-side ringtone customization sounds nice.

But, if that option is chosen, will it be implemented anytime soon ?

[jellykells]

will it be implemented anytime soon ?

no it's been six years lmao

[KaKi87]

See, that's why I'm making this urgent implementation proposal instead.

[t3chguy]

The technical implementation side of this isn't the blocker, the product/design side is, we can't land it without sign off from them.

[KaKi87]

Who's in charge then ?

[t3chguy]

@vector-im/product

[KaKi87]

What's that ?

[t3chguy]

The product team, you asked who's in charge

Who's in charge then ?

The technical implementation side of this isn't the blocker, the product/design side is, we can't land it without sign off from them.

The product team are.

[KaKi87]

I mean where should I copy/paste "@vector-im/product" ? I tried to find a GitHub repo at that location but there isn't. So, where is it ? On Matrix or something ?

[t3chguy]

It is a Github team

[KaKi87]

Where's that screenshot from ?

I tried the People page but it only returns ungrouped individuals.

[t3chguy]

I'm fairly certain the underlying members are kept private for privacy, but you can ping the team as you did above already.