No notification sound in vibrate mode despite priority 10 / high-importance channel (missing USAGE_ALARM audio attributes)

[DamienAuv]

Environment

• Device: Samsung Galaxy A54
• Android version: 16 (One UI)
• Gotify Android app version: 2.10.1
• Gotify server version: 2.6.3
• WebSocket connection: OK, no errors
• Battery optimization: Disabled for Gotify (not optimized)

Description

Notifications are received reliably (stable connection, no errors in logs). However, when the phone is in vibrate mode, messages sent with priority: 10 produce only vibration, no sound — even though:

• The app's per-priority notification channels exist and the high-importance channel is used.
• The high-importance channel and DND exceptions have been configured in Android system settings.
• All available Android permissions / DND exceptions have been granted.

This is being used for on-call (astreinte) alerting, where an audible sound that overrides vibrate-only mode is critical.

Steps to reproduce

1. Confirm Gotify's priority-based notification channels exist (high / default importance).
2. Set the phone to vibrate mode (not silent, not DND).
3. Send a Gotify message with "priority": 10.
4. Notification and vibration occur, but no sound is played.

Expected behavior

A priority: 10 message should be able to play sound even in vibrate mode, consistent with Android's alarm audio behavior, so it can be used for on-call alerting.

Actual behavior

No sound is played regardless of priority; only vibration occurs.

Logcat evidence

Captured on the device at the moment of a priority: 10 message (ringer mode = vibrate):

08-07 10:25:13.958  7132  7191 I NotificationManager: com.github.gotify: notify(-5, null,
Notification(channel=8::gotify_messages_high_importance shortcut=null contentView=null vibrate=null sound=null
defaults=0 flags=AUTO_CANCEL|GROUP_SUMMARY color=0xff3867d6 groupKey=GOTIFY_GROUP_MESSAGES vis=PRIVATE ...)) as user

08-07 10:25:14.087  7132  7191 I NotificationManager: com.github.gotify: notify(581, null,
Notification(channel=8::gotify_messages_high_importance shortcut=null contentView=null vibrate=null sound=null
defaults=0 flags=SHOW_LIGHTS|AUTO_CANCEL color=0xff3867d6 groupKey=GOTIFY_GROUP_MESSAGES vis=PRIVATE ...)) as user

08-07 10:25:14.879  1554 13999 D VibratorManagerService: converted usage = NOTIFICATION(49)
08-07 10:25:14.879  1554 13999 D VibratorManagerService: vibrate - uid: 1000, opPkg: android, effect: ...,
  attrs: VibrationAttributes{mUsage=NOTIFICATION, mAudioUsage= USAGE_UNKNOWN, ...},
  reason: Notification (com.github.gotify 10249)
08-07 10:25:15.995  1554  1804 D VibratorManagerService: Vibration for uid=1000 ... ended with status FINISHED

Two things stand out:

1. Routing is correct — the priority: 10 message is posted on gotify_messages_high_importance, so priority → channel mapping works.
2. The only system reaction is a vibration with mUsage=NOTIFICATION. There is no audio playback event anywhere in the log around the notification (no AudioManager / stream / ringtone activity). The vibration is emitted with NOTIFICATION usage, not ALARM.

Root cause hypothesis

Because the channel's audio is configured with a notification usage rather than an alarm usage, Android suppresses the sound when the ringer is in vibrate mode. This is not something a user can fix in system settings — the AudioAttributes usage of a NotificationChannel is set programmatically by the app when the channel is created and is immutable afterwards. So even with a custom sound set on the channel, vibrate mode silences it.

Feature request

Add an option (per priority level, or at least for priority ≥ 8/10) to route high-priority messages through an alarm-style channel, so they sound even in vibrate mode. Concretely, create a dedicated NotificationChannel whose sound is set with:

val audioAttributes = AudioAttributes.Builder()
    .setUsage(AudioAttributes.USAGE_ALARM)          // key change: ALARM instead of USAGE_NOTIFICATION*
    .setContentType(AudioAttributes.CONTENT_TYPE_SONIFICATION)
    .build()

val channel = NotificationChannel(
    "gotify_messages_alarm",
    "Alarm (priority 10)",
    NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH
).apply {
    setSound(alarmSoundUri, audioAttributes)
    enableVibration(true)
}

Optionally combine with a full-screen intent for truly critical alerts. This is the approach used by apps whose alerts must break through silent/vibrate (e.g. Home Assistant's alarm_stream channel, and on-call tools like PagerDuty/Opsgenie).

Additional context

Happy to provide full logcat output or further device diagnostics if useful.