Google Allo sound notifications not working properly for many users

For quite some time now, Android users have been complaining about random behavior of Google Allo’s sound notifications. Specifically, what’s being reported is that more often than not, sound notifications are cut short (users say what they hear is like a blip of sound).

Affected users note that notification sound plays fine when the app is active in foreground while receiving a message. But, if the app is not open or the phone is locked, it generates only a quick vibration (instead of sound notification) on receiving a new message.

Though the notification icon always shows up, it’s the notification sound that’s acting weird.

The issue occurs irrespective of whether the notification sound is customized or the one set by default as well as whether you’re receiving a single or multiple messages. Also, the issue is not device-specific, as users note that other applications play notification sound normally.

The problem in question was first reported last year in October, but ignored likely because only a few users were reporting it. The onset of August this year, however, brought along more user complains on the official Allo forum. Google addressed one of the users on August 16, suggesting them to use an updated version of the app, and clear cache and cookie.

Here’s what exactly a Google employee said:

Chung could you make sure you’re updated to the most recent version of Allo? That’s 16.0 as of today :). Also try to clear the app’s cache & data to see if that helps at all

The problem hasn’t been officially acknowledged yet.

Steps like re-installing the app, updating to latest version, clearing cache and cookie, and factory reset don’t help, as these have all been tried by affected users. For now, sending a feedback to Google is the only suggestion given on the official help forum. So do that if you are seriously troubled by the problem.

And as we always say, keep a tab here for all further developments related to this issue.

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