New notification sound hard to hear unless I am very near my phone.
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Agreed. It was much better before.
I don’t use the app, but I’ve read hosts complaining about this since the last time they changed it. Now they apparently changed it again due to all the feedback about how no one could hear it, but didn’t make any improvement? 
How typical of them.
If you folks can’t hear the app sound, why not check off receiving notifications by SMS? Then you can adjust the SMS message volume on your phone.
I realize it wouldn’t be a special sound for Airbnb, but at least you’d be able to hear it.
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On Android you can set up your own notification sound so I don’t see the issue.
I use the same notification sound for all apps that are related to our STR business, then I know immediately that I should have a peak what’s going on.
Same on an iPhone so I also don’t see the issue.
At the moment, I have Airbnb texts set to a quacking duck. 
Also, and I don’t know about other hosts, but I have my phone with me at all times.
This morning I was popping out for a few minutes. I got to the car and realised I hadn’t picked up my phone. So I went back for it.
I don’t understand why people don’t always have their phone with them.
I think people can go out without remembering to take their phone just like they can go out shopping and forget their shopping bags or anything else.
If I’m just popping out for a quick nearby shopping trip, I don’t necessarily take my phone, unless I’m expecting some crucial call. Almost nothing is so urgent that I feel I have to answer within 20 minutes. But if I’m not near my phone, which I usually am, I pick it up to see if I missed anything as soon as I get back to it.
What I do notice is that a lot of people have their ringers and msg. notifications turned down so low, I’d never be able to hear it. But some people have better hearing than others.
And it seems a lot of hosts apparently aren’t aware they can control msg. alert tones and volumes on their phones.
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Could you share how to select your own notification sound on an iPhone? I can’t find that option when I look in Settings - I can only turn it on or off.
From memory, find Airbnb in your contacts list. (Add it if it isn’t already there). Then when the contact is shown, press edit (top left). Scroll down to text tone (not ringtone), and set a tone from the next screen.
Note that you can also set the tone to sound even when your phone is on silent or focused.
Ahhhhh, I see why the confusion. I was talking about the notification sound from the app itself (and I presume the OP was, too). You configured the text message sound.
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I have an android, not an iphone, so don’t know if it’s the same, but to change notification sounds for an app on an android:
Go to settings
Click on Apps and Notifications
Find the app you want and click on it
Scroll down and you will find Sounds or Notifications
Click on that to select a tone
As @muddy explained, you can change the notification sound for the app itself - in some instances you can even change the sound for each individual even within the app e.g. like a separate sound for a booking confirmation and a different sound for a cancellation.
I prefer to have my phone with me but if I don’t hear a notification, I feel it as my watch buzzes me! I can’t answer from my watch but I can ignore until later!
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Airbnb has a problem sending messages to iPhones. Not everyone has the issue though. I called Airbnb Support, and they acknowledged the issue and told me they are working on it, but no solution has been presented.
Do you have that issue? And what is it? Wondering if guests also have this.
I do. I never received any text messages from Airbnb, only emails and in App notifications. Airbnb cannot solve it.
I get a plethora of text messages from airbnb to my iPhone. Since this thread is about the app notification sound, I was thinking your complaint was about that.
Perhaps it is a setting?
I checked all the boxes, Email, Push, and SMS, but SMS never worked. I called in no help