NotifySound

Sounds for the notifications that keep quiet.

GitHub stars 100% Free & Open Source MIT License Linux / GNOME Python + GTK4
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01The problem

On GNOME, a notification only makes a sound when the app that sent it explicitly includes a sound-name or sound-file hint. Most apps never do — Warp, terminals, IDE builds, cron-like tools — so their notifications stay completely silent.

Apps that do play their own sound (Telegram, WhatsApp PWAs, etc.) are left untouched by default: they are marked with a "Tiene sonido propio" label and their per-app switch is off. Enable the per-app switch if you intentionally want both sounds.

02Demo

Enable sound to hear the notification. First without NotifySound (silent), then with NotifySound (sound plays).

03Screenshots

NotifySound main window: per-app sounds, volumes and switches
Per-app content rules in NotifySound (real example with three rules)

04Why does this exist?

GNOME notifications don't play a sound by default. The freedesktop notification spec includes optional hints (sound-name, sound-file), but most apps never set them — so terminals, IDE builds, cron-like tools and many others stay completely silent.

This isn't a bug: GNOME's maintainers have explained that apps rely on notifications being silent (some play their own sound and would double up), and the new notification API will default to having sounds. Until then, NotifySound fills the gap.

05Features

Play sound for any silent notification

The daemon watches GNOME, GTK and freedesktop notification paths and plays your chosen sound when an app sends a notification without one.

No double sounds

Notifications with their own sound (or that declare suppress-sound) are respected.

Per-app control

Enable/disable each app and give it its own sound. Apps are detected automatically and grouped by process (so AIMP shows as one entry, not one per song).

Per-app volume

Set a different volume (0-100 %) for each application, so loud apps can be tamed and quiet ones amplified.

Content rules

Play or silence specific notifications by body, title or urgency level (low, normal, critical).

Anti-burst

Repeated notifications from the same app within a configurable time window only play once.

App aliasing and fusion

Rename detected apps to a friendly name ("AIMP" instead of a process id). Merge duplicates by renaming them to the same alias; undo from the info popover.

Custom sound files

Add your own OGG/WAV/FLAC (and MP3/M4A/AAC with GStreamer, ffplay, mpv or mpg123).

Notify when a command finishes

notify-sound done sends a completion notification when a long command finishes — and plays its sound even if the daemon is not running.

Simple GTK4 settings app

Choose sounds, test them, manage apps and daemon state from one window.

Bilingual GUI (EN/ES)

The settings app is available in English and Spanish, with an in-app language selector.

Per-user install

The source installer needs no sudo; Ubuntu/Debian users can also use the release package.

06NotifySound vs. the GNOME extension

There's a GNOME Shell extension that also adds sound to notifications. Here's an honest comparison:

NotifySoundGNOME extension
TypeStandalone daemon + GTK4 GUIGNOME Shell extension
ScopeGNOME, GTK and freedesktop pathsGNOME Shell notifications
Per-app controlEnable/disable per app, per-app sounds, per-app volume, content rules, aliasingSound for all notifications
Custom soundsOGG/WAV/FLAC/MP3/M4A/AACSystem sound theme
SettingsGTK4 windowGNOME Extensions preferences
Install.deb or per-user scriptOne click on extensions.gnome.org
Outside GNOMEGNOME-focused, freedesktop pathsNo (GNOME Shell only)

Both are free and open source. Pick whichever fits your workflow — or run both if you like.

07Install

Ubuntu / Debian package (recommended):

Download .deb SHA-256 checksum 
sudo dpkg -i ./notify-sound_0.1.10_all.deb
sudo apt-get -f install

Or install per-user from source (no sudo):

Ubuntu / Debian dependencies:

sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gnome-session-canberra dbus

Then clone and install (no sudo needed):

git clone https://github.com/ChristianM023/notify-sound.git
cd notify-sound
./install.sh

Usage:

notify-sound               # open the settings GUI
notify-sound --daemon      # start the daemon
notify-sound --quit        # stop the daemon
notify-sound done [message] # notify when a long command finishes

Tip: append notify-sound done after a long command to get a notification when it finishes — it plays even if the daemon is not running:

./long-build.sh; notify-sound done

Other distributions: see the README for requirements and alternatives.

08Quick test

After installing, verify it works in seconds:

notify-sound --daemon
notify-send "Test" "If you hear a sound, it works"

If you installed with autostart enabled (the default), the daemon is already running and the notify-send line alone is enough.

You can also test the command-completion notification — it plays even if the daemon is not running:

notify-sound done "Done"

09Troubleshooting

See the README for the full troubleshooting guide.

10Privacy

NotifySound runs entirely on your machine — it never connects to the network, sends no telemetry, and stores no notification content. It reads only notification metadata (app name, hints) in memory; the only thing written to disk is per-app state (notification count, last-seen time) in ~/.config/notify-sound/state.json, never the body of a notification. Config and state files are written atomically with O_NOFOLLOW and mode 0600, so only your user can read them.

See the README for the full privacy and security details.