Whenever I try to set up Separate App Sound through Settings, for example to hear music from Spotify on my Bluetooth earbuds, but leave all other sounds such as notifications, alarms, etc. to play through the phone speaker, I usually end up hearing everything on the earbuds.
Separate app sound setting screenshot
The sentence in the first screenshot, "Make sure you choose an audio device that's different from your main audio output device," is not helpful, because there's nothing that shows what my "main audio device" is. If I've just connected my earbuds, it seems that the Main audio device is automatically changed to the earbuds. So how is it possible to follow that instruction? What I really want to do is keep the Separate apps playing on the earbuds while changing the *Main* audio device back to the Phone - something that this Setting doesn't seem to enable.
Separate app sound notification pop-up screenshot
Then there are the notification pop-ups. The first one (second screenshot) that appears after flipping the "Turn on now" toggle seems straightforward, saying, "Sound is playing on your Bluetooth audio device. Tap here to turn this off." Since the title of the pop-up is, "Separate app sound," I assume that "sound" in this case means only the separate app sound, which is what I want. But this isn't the case, as at this point I'm still hearing notification and alarm sounds in my earbuds. So flipping that toggle doesn't seem to do what it says, but it's not immediately obvious because of the lack of any display of what the "main" audio output device is. So if I then tap "Audio device" at the bottom, I get to this screen:
Audio device setting screenshot
Tapping "Phone" at this point kills the music on the earbuds, as it should, since it says, "Select the audio device you want to use for the apps you selected." But if I then tap "Bluetooth device," I see this pop-up (fourth screenshot) entitled, "Change main audio output device?":
Audio device pop-up notification screenshot
It begins, "The audio device you selected to separate sound for certain apps ([Bluetooth device name]) is the same as your main audio device." This is frustrating, since I haven't tried to change the main audio output device. Why did it change, and how do I change it back to Phone?
The second sentence instructs, "Change your main audio device to This phone to separate sound for these apps." How? There's no control for that!
IMO, somewhere in this setting, the Main audio output device should be displayed and controls made available to change it explicitly. Also, the notification pop-ups are superfluous and should be eliminated. If the controls are more clear and intuitive, confirmation dialogs such as those are unnecessary.
