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My wife recently changed her phone, a Samsung Galaxy S22 running Android. Nothing to say about the phone itself, she quickly reinstalled all her Android applications thanks to my advice in the article How to find and reinstall lost or deleted Android applications? She was also able to set up her Hotmail mailbox on her Android smartphone without any problem.
In short, everything went pretty well and she was able to use her smartphone quickly (iOS is not the only one that is easy to use). However, she quickly came to me asking how to remove the sounds in the Facebook application for Android. Indeed, a sound is emitted by default by the Facebook application during different actions: when a notification is sent, when the news feed is updated, when a post is liked, etc… She had tried several settings, especially in Android, by disabling the system notifications of Android for Facebook. She searched for a long time in the numerous options of Facebook but in vain…
Mute Sounds in the Facebook Application for Android
The following setting is no longer available in the Android app. Indeed, the setting Sounds in the application has indeed disappeared in the new version of the Facebook app. However, it is still possible to disable sound notifications in Android.
Here are the steps to follow to remove the sound effects emitted by the Facebook Android application. Please note that we are talking about the sounds emitted directly by the Facebook application and not about disabling the notifications emitted by Android.
- Open the Facebook application on your Android device. Click on the top right-hand corner of the Facebook menu and then on Settings and Privacy at the bottom of the options.
By the way, check out our article on privacy on Facebook if you want to know more about this thorny subject. - Then click on Settings.
- Scroll through the settings and click on Media and Contacts.
- Turn off the Sounds option in the application.
And that’s it, no more inappropriate sounds played in the Facebook for Android application!
Notes: all the steps to remove Facebook sounds were taken in June 2022 on a Huawei P40 smartphone running Android 11. There may be differences depending on the version of the Facebook app and the version of the Android operating system you are using. If you don’t know what version of Android you’re using, check out our tutorial to find out your Android version.
Other Options in the Media and Contacts Section of Facebook App
As we have already seen in the article on how to remove geolocation in Facebook, there are a lot of options available in Facebook. This does not always make it easy to set up, especially for less experienced users. So I’ll take this opportunity to show you some of the settings available in the same section, Media and Contacts.
- News Feed videos start with sound: an option that lets you set whether sound is activated when a video is played in Facebook.
- Links open externally: By default, links to other sites are opened in the Facebook browser. If you prefer to open links in your default browser (probably Google Chrome since we’re in Android), then enable this option!
- Import photos in HD / Import videos in HD: option to import photos and videos in a better quality than the standard quality.
- Auto play : this is a setting that I do not fail to disable. Because I can’t stand the automatic playback of Facebook News Feed videos. This is one of the first settings I make when installing the FB app.
Disable Sound Effects in the Facebook for iOS App
Since I’m a kind soul and I had my iPad Air on hand, I added the iOS version of this tutorial to mute Facebook sounds in the Facebook for iOS app. The process is almost identical, a piece of cake!
- Open the Facebook for iOS app on your iPad or iPhone, click on the menu (bottom right in the Facebook for iPad version) and then on Settings.
- Find the Media and Contacts section and select Sounds (manage your sound preferences in apps and videos).
- All that’s left is to turn off the Sound Effects setting in the app!
Alternative to Facebook and Facebook Messenger App on Android
If you want to get rid of the invasive Facebook or Facebook Messenger notifications, there is a radical solution! Don’t use the Android or iOS applications of Facebook and Facebook Messenger or uninstall them 🙂 Indeed, even on a mobile or a tablet running on Android, an iPhone or an iPad, it is possible to do without the Facebook application. Facebook apps are indeed heavy in terms of storage (several tens or even hundreds of GB) and use. These apps are also a bit too intrusive because of the use of unwanted notifications and sounds, or geolocation (even if it is easy to disable geolocation in Facebook).
So prefer the web version of Facebook to the app, accessible from a browser on your mobile device. It’s much lighter and won’t take up extra space on your smartphone/tablet. By the way, if you have space problems on your smartphone, I advise you to read my article on insufficient storage space on an Android device.
As far as Facebook Messenger is concerned, it’s more difficult because it’s no longer available from the web version of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s company pushing to download and install the dedicated Facebook Messenger application. However, it is possible to do without it on your smartphone or tablet and use it on your computer. As for Windows 10, you should know that there are solutions to remove the sound from Windows 10 notifications.