How to turn on the Separate App Sound feature, which will make everyone jealous.
You probably have a feature on your Samsung Galaxy phone that you haven't used yet. This feature isn't hidden in the developer menu and doesn't require any advanced settings. It's called "Separate App Sound," and it lets you route audio from a specific app to a different output device than the one used by the rest of the system.
What is its purpose?
Use cases are more common than you might think. The most common scenario: You're listening to music through a Bluetooth speaker, and a notification interrupts the music playing at full volume. With this feature, the speaker plays only what you want, while all other system sounds continue to come through your phone.
Another common scenario: You're in the car with your phone connected to the radio via Bluetooth, and a video from WhatsApp or Instagram cuts out the music. By adjusting the audio settings for apps separately, only the music app will use the car's Bluetooth, while all other sounds play through your phone's speakers without interruption.
The feature also works in reverse: if you're making a video call via Google Meet or Teams using headphones, you can hear all other system sounds—alerts, notifications, and other apps—through your phone's speaker without interrupting the call.
How to activate it
First, connect the Bluetooth device you will be using (headphones, speaker, or car audio system). After pairing and activation:
- Open your phone's settings.
- Switch to Sounds and Vibration.
Scroll down the screen.
-Click on "Separate App Sound" (it may appear as "Separate App Sound" in English depending on the language settings).
- Activate the button next to "Play Now."
- Click on "Select" in the pop-up message.
- Select the app or apps whose audio you want to redirect.
- Select the target audio device: your phone or the connected Bluetooth device.
Important note: This feature only works when the audio device designated for the app is different from the device set as the system's primary audio output. If your Bluetooth headphones are already the primary audio output and you've also set them as the app's destination, this feature creates an exception so the app plays audio from a different source than other devices.
For example, if you connect Bluetooth headphones and they become your primary audio output, you can go to Settings, select YouTube, and set them as your phone's speaker as the destination. This way, YouTube will play through your phone while other devices continue to use your headphones.
This feature is available on almost all Galaxy devices running Android 7 or later, covering a very wide range of devices. It first appeared with the Galaxy S8 series in 2017, meaning it has been around for almost a decade. Not all apps are guaranteed to work, although the most popular ones—such as Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Google Maps, browsers, and video calling apps—usually work without issues. If a particular app doesn't work as expected, the only way to be sure is to try it.