How to Use Samsung’s Separate App Sound Feature

Last updated on 12 January 2025

If your phone is connected to a Bluetooth audio device to stream audio, especially to a Bluetooth speaker, you might not want everyone to hear what your screen reader is saying. Or, you might prefer that your screen reader’s speech doesn’t interfere with the audio being played. For such situations, Samsung’s “Separate App Sound” feature might be exactly what you need.

Unfortunately, as of the time of writing and to the best of my knowledge, there is no similar feature built into Android. This functionality is left to manufacturers to include in their Android flavors, with Samsung being the only company I know of that has implemented this feature. Separate app sounds should be available on Samsung devices running Android 7.0 and above, and it is currently a part of both One UI and One UI Core.

What is Separate App Sound?

Separate App Sound is a feature of Samsung’s One UI that allows users to choose which apps’ audio is streamed through a Bluetooth-connected device and which is streamed through the phone. With this feature, the main audio device plays the audio from most apps, while audio from selected apps is redirected to a different audio device.

How to Activate and Configure the Feature

1. Connect the Bluetooth audio device you want to use.
2. Open Settings by selecting it from the notifications panel, opening it from the apps list, or using the voice assistant. Look for “Sounds and Vibrations” and select it. Then, choose “Separate App Sound”. Alternatively, you can use the search option in Settings to find it quickly.
3. In the Separate App Sound settings window, you’ll see an overview of the feature and instructions on how to use it, along with a toggle to turn it on. Activate this toggle to enable the feature.
4. If this is the first time you’re enabling the feature, you’ll be prompted to select the apps and the audio device for the feature. Tap the “Select” button to proceed.
5. You will then be presented with a few apps to choose from. If the app you want is not listed, select “Add Apps” to access the full list. Double-tap the apps you want to select to check them, and use the search bar to find them quickly. Note that you can select up to five apps. Once you’re done, simply go back.
6. After going back, you’ll see the Select Audio Device dialog, where you can choose between the phone and the Bluetooth device. The audio device you select will be used for the apps you chose earlier.
7. By default, the main audio device is the connected Bluetooth device. If you select the Bluetooth device as the audio device for streaming the selected apps’ audio, a notification will appear, asking you to change the main audio device to the phone in order to separate the sound for the selected apps. Double-tapping the notification will switch the main audio device, so all audio will go through the phone except for the apps you selected in the Separate App Sound section.

How to Use the Feature to Prevent Your Screen Reader’s Speech from Being Streamed Through the Bluetooth Device

It is not possible to select TalkBack as the app of choice and set it to use the phone’s audio through the Separate App Sounds feature. This limitation also applies to Jieshuo, even if Jieshuo appears in the list of apps. Even when using media volume as the default audio channel, selecting Jieshuo will not direct its speech through the phone’s speaker; only earcons (if sound feedback is enabled) will be affected, not the speech output.

The workaround for screen reader users is to select the apps they want to use with the Bluetooth device—for example, a media player used for playing audio tracks. After selecting the desired apps and choosing the Bluetooth device as the audio device for those apps, change the main audio device using the notification mentioned earlier. By doing this, your screen reader’s speech, along with other audio, will go through the phone, while the audio from the selected apps will play through the Bluetooth-connected device.

Note that if you prefer not to have your screen reader’s speech output come from the phone’s speaker, you can connect wired earphones.

Notes Worth Mentioning

1. When Separate App Sounds is on, you can play media simultaneously through the phone and the connected device without causing either to stop the other. I tested this by playing a track using a music player on my Bluetooth earbuds and a YouTube video on the phone.
2. You can adjust the volume of the two audio devices independently. Using TalkBack, I am able to adjust speech volume by putting my finger on the screen while media is playing and adjust the media volume by pressing the volume keys without touching the screen. If media is playing on both devices, you can expand the volume panel after pressing any of the volume keys to reveal volume sliders that you can adjust, including sliders for the media on both the phone and the connected device.
3. Disconnecting and reconnecting the Bluetooth device doesn’t usually turn off the Separate App Sounds feature, but it will switch to the Bluetooth device as the main audio device. To make the feature work again, you must turn it off and then on to get the notification to change the main audio device. Note that at this stage, you are not required to reconfigure the apps.
4. In the Separate App Sound settings window, you can always change the apps and remove the ones you no longer want to separate their sounds for, as well as the audio device that should be used.
5. When a call is received, your screen reader sound will come from the Bluetooth-connected device even if you are using the phone as the device for your screen reader speech. After the call ends, the separation should work again.
6. Jieshuo screen reader includes an option to bypass the Bluetooth-connected device and use the phone instead, found in TTS Settings > Other Settings, but this option doesn’t work as intended on most devices.