The latest Android 16 QPR1 beta finally organizes Android’s messy sound settings

After more than 16 years of development, the Android OS is packed with features. If they weren’t organized, navigating them would be a mess. For a long time, that’s exactly what Android’s sound settings page felt like, but Google is finally cleaning it up in the next quarterly release of Android 16.

After installing Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 on our Pixel device, we noticed that the Settings > Sound & vibration menu has received a major cleanup. Instead of presenting every setting in a single vertical list, the latest Android 16 QPR1 beta separates them by category. For instance, the “phone ringtone,” “default notification sound,” and “default alarm sound” options are now grouped under a new “sound patterns” section. Meanwhile, the “Spatial Audio” and “Media” items are under a new “Audio” section. The five volume sliders remain at the top of the page, but they’ve been updated with the more modern Material 3 Expressive design seen in the volume panel. Furthermore, the “audio will play on” entry no longer sits awkwardly between the media and call volume sliders but has been moved to the very top.

Here’s a gallery showing the Sound & Vibration settings page in Android 16 versus Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2:

And if that’s not enough to showcase the difference, here’s a list that shows just how unorganized this page was before and after the update to Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2:

Sound & Vibration settings in Android 16

• Media volume
• Audio will play on
• Call volume
• Ring volume
• Notification volume
• Alarm volume
• Phone ringtone
• Live Caption
• Spatial audio
• Now Playing
• Media
• Vibration & haptics
• Default notification sound
• Default alarm sound
• Clear Calling
• Dial pad tones
• Screen locking sound
• Charging sounds and vibration
• Tap & click sounds
• Always show icon when in vibrate mode

Sound & Vibration Settings in Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2

• Volume
  • Audio will play on
  • Media volume
  • Call volume
  • Ring volume
  • Notification volume
  • Alarm volume
• Vibration & haptics
• Sound patterns
  • Phone ringtone
  • Default notification sound
  • Default alarm sound
• Audio
• System sounds & vibrations
  • Dial pad tones
  • Screen locking sound
  • Charging sounds and vibration
  • Tap & click sounds
  • Always show icon when in vibrate mode
  • Live Caption
  • Adaptive Sound
  • Now Playing
  • Clear Calling

I’m glad to see Google finally start to tidy up Android’s sound settings in Android 16 QPR1. This is something I complained about back in 2023, as I noticed Google was reorganizing many other pages in the Settings app while leaving the Sound & vibration page untouched. The Material 3 Expressive redesign, which places menu items in separate cards, goes a long way in making the Settings app feel less cluttered. However, the Sound & vibration page previously undermined this by keeping all its options in one long, vertical list. While the new page still has too many settings under the “system sounds & vibrations” section at the bottom, it’s much better than before.