Any way to turn off the in-app sound when sending money? App still makes loud sounds even in Do Not Disturb mode (bug, surely?)

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It’s not. These are UX design principles. Media sounds are for user requested sounds, not app initiated (and unexpected) notification-like sounds. It’s correct for DnD to allow the former, for example the Youtube app, or a media player app, since in those app the user is the one who actually taps “Play” to initiate the sound; those apps also usually provide a mute option. In Monzo’s case, the app just decides to play a sound, at an unexpected time, as loud as it can, without providing any control to the user over said sounds. That’s bad UX design. DnD’s purpose is to stop unexpected sounds, not expected sounds.

But the point I was making in the OP is that, if Monzo insists on its app to sing to us, then it should also provide control to the user over those sounds. It’s the only banking/payment app that added sounds, so it should also add the option to turn them off.

On a personal note, I see zero reasons why a banking/payment app should make any in-app sounds at all on manual operations. It clearly bothers people without actually helping anything, really, since if I was visually impaired then I wouldn’t be able to use the app in the first place anyway, and if I wasn’t visually impaired then I could see the result of my manual action on screen. It’s a banking app, not a media player or game. Picture Windows or MacOS making bubbly sounds when opening windows that I have no control over and Microsoft/Apple telling me “Well, just mute your volume if you don’t like it”.

At most, not that it would serve any purpose, Monzo could borrow from more solid mobile UX design principles and trigger an OS notification on manual operations such as send/withdraw/etc. That would provide the user some control, as the user can deal with the sounds/vibrations/notifications at the OS level with OS settings … but they’d still be worthless notifications.

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22

Perhaps I wasn’t the clearest in my message. There are three discussions here.

1. Volume of the noise
Totally agree with you that it’s too loud. The volume should be lowered.

2. A Monzo setting, in the Monzo app, to turn off the sounds
Also agree this should be an option. Personally I like the noise but many won’t so an option is an ideal solution that suits everyone (and really should be there from the off for any app with sounds)

3. The behaviour of this sound when the Android feature “Do Not Disturb” is enabled
Assuming (big if) that the behaviour I’m seeing is the same for all on Android, the app is behaving exactly as it should. Nothing is broken, there is no bug - the sound falls under the Media category and it only sounds if the Media category is excluded in the device’s DND settings, as you’d expect. I agree that the term media is not really a great one to describe this type of sound, but it’s for sure the best match from the options that Android has (and Monzo has no control over) which are Alarms, Media, Touch Sounds, Calendar Events and Reminders. The average person may find Media an odd description, personally I think Misc would suit better, but these are the options provided.

As already mentioned this third party is all minutiae that should be irrelevant because the sound should be controllable in app anyway, and neither you nor anyone should have to use device settings, especially when said settings have such sweeping categories that they prevent you using your device as you wish. The only point I’m trying to make here is that Monzo is behaving as it should with DND (whose purpose is to stop whichever types of sound you’ve told it to stop). The team doesn’t need to be looking for a bug, instead they should be adding a feature and changing the volume.

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Can’t you use sound assistant to disable app sounds?

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I hadn’t used Monzo for a while and made a transfer today after many months … and I woke my newborn up while my phone was on DnD! I couldn’t believe a banking app behaves like this.

This … it’s also in the name “do not disturb”, something that expected sounds aren’t famous for :joy:

The Monzo app already has OS notifications for all actions, with sounds that can be configured (or silenced) by anyone to their liking and choice. There is no point to in-app sounds whatsoever. Please just remove them and rejoin the professional apps club, which is virtually every other banking/money app out there. I mean, it’s banking, not tiktok (though I’m not sure even tiktok has uncontrollable in-app sounds).

It’s about the user’s perspective, not the OS’s. As a UX developer, this is clearly a bug from at least 2 standpoints. It also breaks basic UX design rules. Moreover, just because the OS allows something doesn’t mean it’s not a bug, or that it’s a good idea. The OS allows all sort of stupid things. We also seem to have wildly different definitions for how a banking app “should” behave. You probably meant “as the devs intended” which is actually unknown (unless you’re the Monzo product manager responsible for this “feature”?) – dev intentions are littered with oversights.

First, Monzo issues both OS notifications and (uncontrollable) in-app sounds for the same actions, e.g. outgoing bank transfer. That’s a UX bug outright. OS notifications can be configured with sound and are entirely under the user’s control. The design choice to do both is a big no-no.

Second, the sound is not user-initiated, but forced upon by the application without providing any control. Non-media apps delegate sounds to OS notifications or to app settings. Unexpected sounds are meant to observe DnD, silent mode, and volume controls. Designing a non-media app with sounds not initiated by the user to override any of those OS level modes is another big no-no. It’s about the user’s perspective, not the OS’s. The OS allows all sort of stupid things. Claiming it’s not a bug but a feature working as it should would reflect even worse on the Monzo devs and app.

Should I be thankful or resentful that the Monzo devs didn’t choose to open a 10 seconds video clip popup blasting Taylor Swift when sending money and calling it a property of the core money sending action … while also issuing an OS notification with sound?

I already regret typing so much for something so obviously wrong … but hopefully the Monzo devs see this and accept the feedback.

p.s. I see a few other UX changes that made the app more cumbersome to use, e.g. too many taps and scrolls to send money to someone; it used to be better streamlined. Perhaps prioritize that experience over sounds?

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Having the same issue. I agree there should be a setting in the app to turn of all sounds, but more importantly, this shouldn’t be a “media” sound at all (i.e. controlled by the media volume slider). The notification slider would seem better suited.

If you are using a Samsung phone, there is an app called Sound Assistant on the Galaxy Store, which allows you to change the volume of an individual app. This at least works as a temporary workaround.

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Has Monzo ever actually fixed any bugs reported here? How do we get visibility on this?

This is about as trivial as it gets in terms of software engineering time to fix/add an option for. It’s infuriating that it’s still like this. Skype was/is similar - playing inappropriately loud sounds at unwanted times with no way to disable them.

I would argue this is even a safety issue. If you’re in a public place doing some banking, and the payment sound blares out, now everyone around you knows you have your banking app open.

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Yes, they fix many bugs. Sometimes a staff member will post about it being solved in an upcoming update. That’s the extent of the visibility you’re going to get.

The bigger the issue and the more people it impacts, the more chance it gets fixed. You have have no idea on how trivial it is to fix and it’s not a safety issue and trying to say it is won’t get it solved any quicker.

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28

Well, well…

<boolean name="payment_confirmation_sound_silent_mode" value="false" />

:eyes:
:point_up: Tap/click

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Are Monzo devs trolling? The app now is even worse: the sound is still an in-app sound but now played via the “notifications” channel instead of the “media” channel !

So now bringing the media volume down to zero does nothing, and Monzo blasts the sound past it. Fantastic.

So to get it to be silent, I have to navigate to my phone audio settings, via several config pages, and then bring the notifications volume down to zero (because the phone’s volume buttons change the media volume) … and remember to put it back up so that I hear my phone’s other notifications.

All the while the app is still also issuing normal OS notifications for each transfer.

All these have got to be the worst UX design choices I’ve seen made on a phone app.

Feels like someone at Monzo saw this thread and went “Oh yeah, watch me make it even worse for all of you! Take that!”

How was this last modification allowed in the production release of the app, but removing it entirely or adding an option was not?

31

Issue:
The in app payment sound overrides DND.
In DND, the only exception switched in is Alarms. This sound is not an alarm.
The in app option to turn the sound off is missing.

Details to reproduce:
Make any payment.

OS: Android 14

Device: Samsung Galaxy S24

App Version: 5.94.0

Screenshots: N/A - sound related

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But when is it going to happen?! This wasn’t an issue before the most recent updates,but now even with in-app notifications off, phone notifications off and my phone on silent I STILL get that awful noise!

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:soon:

It could be as early as in the next few minutes to 6, 12, 24 months or even longer (if at all)

There’s never a known timescale for the release of features/improvements - only clues that the :monzo: team are working on them.

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Sorry if I’ve misunderstood what you’re saying but the sound plays for me when DND is on and Media is not a type of sound allowed through.
The only thing I have set to come through is alarms.
Do you mean to say that it’s working correctly because the sound is technically an alarm?

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I was replying to earlier posts - at that point, when I tested, the sound was categorised as Media and was only playing when media was turned on (the only category option that makes sense for me, as it’s not an alarm, a reminder, a calendar event or a touch sound, the only other options). But that was only for me, as I said there could have been a bug that meant it was behaving differently for others. It also sounds like since then (this was many months ago) there have potentially been changes too so it could also have been moved to alarm which is very clearly ridiculous. Probably the worst category for it!

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… we certainly have different definitions for “soon” (there have been app updates since then). That latest move feels like just trolling/spite to teach us a lesson to stop requesting they make changes :joy:, because otherwise it would be incompetence not to realize it’s even worse.

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Why do app designers think we want to hear a stupid sound when we have made a transaction? We don’t!!! So the default should be no sounds at all generated by the app, unless we select ‘in app’ sounds, from within the Monzo app (not OS settings). The fact that i cant turn off the ‘ker-ching’ sound when i pay people money (?) on Monzo, prevents me from recommending Monzo, because that feature is beyond silly. Also, why isnt there a feedback option on Monzo… having a ‘community chat’ with no direct feedback makes it feel like Monzo dont care enough about their customers to listen propwrly

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38

It’s my favourite feature.

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39

I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite but I quite like it! :man_shrugging:

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41

This flag was removed in the last :android: update:

<boolean name="feature-flagspayment_confirmation_sound_silent_mode" value="false" />

So either the code deals with it differently or it’s gone.

Although… you can set the preferred sound - at least with Android - to play whatever:

This could be a ‘null-sound’ i.e. silence.mp3 if you want.

1 Like