How to make your phone say something when you plug it in?
Do you want to make your iPhone say what you want when plugged in? How to make your phone say something when you plug it in android? Want to set custom charging sounds? See how you can achieve the same with a few simple steps. Learn how you can use iOS’s automation feature. And root access in Android to set your custom charging audio.
In this article, we are going to see how we can program our Android and iOS devices to say something when you plug them in. This is a pretty niche feature that many people don’t know that even exists. We see plugging in our phones as a chore and just forget about it. And when people see it, they generally freak out and get amazed.
We can play any audio we want when the device is plugged in, and even when plugging out. First, we are going to see how we can achieve this on iPhone and then on Android. If you are not looking for iPhone steps then skip the first section entirely. Now without any delay, let’s get started with the guide.
Make your iPhone say something when you plug it in?
In this section, we are going to see the steps for setting an audio clip that will play when you plug your iPhone in. But before we can start with the guide, make sure you meet the requirements:
- To have the sound effect played, you need to have iOS 14 or later since the automation feature came in iOS 14. So, unfortunately, you need to update your iOs version or use another device.
- Aside from the iOS version, you also need to have the “Shortcuts app” on your iPhone. The app comes pre-installed and you don’t need to download it. But if you for reason you removed the app, then you can download it from App Store by clicking here.
Once you made sure that the requirements are met by your iPhone, we can move to the guide. Follow the steps mentioned below to set the audio(clip):
Start new automation:
If you are not aware about the “Automation” feature Apple introduced in iOS 14 then worry not. Automation is part of the “Shortcuts app” which are shortcuts with a single specific trigger.
- Wake up your iPhone and open the “Shortcuts app” and head over to the “Automation” tab.
- From the section, tap on plus “+” icon and then tap on “Create Personal Automation”. (If you are not able to find the “+” icon, then just skip it and tap on Create Personal Automation).
Choose the “Charger” Trigger:
As the name suggests, we are going to use a charger trigger that will tell that iPhone is plugged in. The trigger will run the action we define and then we can create our custom automation.
- Scroll down the list of triggers in the menu and locate the one which says “charger”.
- Tap on it and you should be able to see different options for you to select. Below are the different options we can choose from to achieve what we want when iPhone is plugged in:
Is Connected: This will activate Siri to say anything we want, this is the option we want to choose.
Is Disconnect: This option will activate Siri when you remove your iPhone from the cable.
Or you can choose to select both the options to get the Siri voice both the times i.e. while connecting and removing the cable. - Once you select the option, tap on “Next” to move to the next step.
Add the “Speak Text” Action:
This is the fun part, from here we can type anything we want Siri to speak when we connect/remove the cable.
- Once you complete the previous step and tap on “next”, you should be able to see the “Add Action” button, tap on it, or use the search bar.
- Now you should be able to see “Speak Text” located at the top of the list, tap on it.
- When you will see the “Speak Text”, tap on the “Text” box which will be in blue and will look separate button.
- After tapping on the “text” button, you will be able to choose what Siri will say when this automation runs. You can write anything which you want, but keep in mind that the text is not case sensitive.
- After you type the text, you can adjust Siri’s voice by changing the language, voice, pitch, rate, and more (tap on the “Show more” or “Arrow” icon). To check the preview of the sound by tapping on the play button.
NOTE: You can add more actions to this automation like adding sound effects after Siri read the text or telling Siri to wait for a certain time before speaking. We would recommend using delayed speech to surprise people and leave them confused.
Disable “Ask before running”:
This is a really important step since the automation will always ask for your permission to make the sound. And this completely defeats the purpose of using automation in the first place.
- Once you are done with the automation settings, tap on the “Next” button and toggle off the “Ask before running” toggle.
- If you get the confirmation prompt for the same, then give it confirmation. This is important since this prompt will be shown again and again when automation will be triggered if you do not allow it.
- Once you are all set with the settings, tap on “Done” and your automation creation will be complete.
Connect the cable to the iPhone:
This is the part which we all have been waiting for, connecting the power cable / wireless charger and hearing Siri say what we want. The best part about it is that no matter if the iPhone is on Silent or Ring mode, Siri will speak the text.
NOTE: When the automation will be triggered (when the charger is connected), iPhone will get a notification saying the automation is running (and more details). This notification will come before the automation is active, meaning you will see the notification before Siri speaks. This is helpful if you want to know if the automation is getting triggered or not.
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How To Make a Phone Say Something When Plug In Android
The biggest advantage of Android devices is the greater level of customizations the user can perform. And it’s important since Android OS natively there’s no option to play audio when you plug your charger in. We need to have root access to create our functionality for audio when the phone is plug in/out.
If you are not aware of rooting, then it’s unlocking our Android devices to have complete control over it and customize it. Once your device is rooted, you can change anything which includes custom ROM (different OS). If you want to know more about rooting then check out this article. Here we are not going to see how you can root your device.
NOTE: You can not move further in the guide without root access since you will not be able to access the Android OS internal folders. And unlike iPhone, there’s no feature/way to set the charging audio or create an automatic event.
Follow the steps mentioned below to set up the charging sound (with root access):
Changing charging sound with root access:
As we have seen in the previous section, we need root access to change the System UI sounds. This means that we can not achieve our task without rooting. If your device is not rooted then we would recommend going to the other article and rooting your phone first.
NOTE: Before you root your phone, make sure that you know the advantages and disadvantages of rooting. Like your device’s warranty will be void and you will not receive security patches.
Find a file explorer with root access:
We need a new file explorer since most of the commonly used file explorers will not show files for rooted devices.
We need to access the files not only for the audio but also for the device to work properly. If your File explorer can not access the files, then it can crash your Android device. We would recommend going with either “File explorer root browser” or “Root file manager”. You can pick any of the file explorers of your choice, be sure that it supports root access.
Navigate to the system/folder on file manager:
Once you download the file explorer, you will notice that the UI (User Interface) and working are the same as any other file manager.
Keep in mind that the names of the folders will be different since you will be able to see all the internal folders also. And you should not worry since Android internal folder names are very weird and technical. From the “options”, select “system/” -> “media” -> “audio/”. Now from here, you can select the audio file which we will use to set when the charger is plugged in.
Get an OGG media file to replace the current charging sound:
This is the fun part, you can search for different audio files and download the one you like in OGG format. While downloading you will be able to see the format you are downloading them in.
But if your favorite file is not available in OGG format, then you can simply use an online converter (mp3 -> OGG).
Upload and rename new (downloaded) sound:
This is a very important step since the Android OS will check the name of the file and not anything else. We need to put the audio file at the right location with the correct name. Otherwise, we will not get the sound we want and even stop getting any charging sound.
Look for an audio file with the name “Dock” and OGG format. Mostly the name of the file will be Dock, but it can vary. Once you find the file, move it to another folder and paste your file there. Change the name to the original file name.
Restart your phone, and check if it works:
The hard part is over, now all we need to do is to restart our device and check if the audio changed. This step is very important since system-level changes are usually done when the OS is rebooted (restarted).
If the audio is not changed, then download a new audio file from the internet and repeat the previous step. Make sure the name of the file is the same and it is case-sensitive (lower/upper-case). Restart the device again after making any changes and testing.
That’s all the work we needed to do, now you can sit back and enjoy your new charing sound. Impress and shock your friends with the customized charging sound.
Summary
In the article, we saw How to make your phone say something when you plug it in/out. If you are an iPhone user then the steps will be much easier to follow. But for Android users, some extra steps are in a different article.
We would recommend going through the pros and cons of rooting your device before trying it out. And if you feel like rooting is not for you, then we would recommend staying away from it. Unless you are experimenting on an older Android device. But if you have any queries then you can put them in the comment section below.
QNA for iPhone
Now when trying automation, you might face some problems. We have covered some of the possible problems you might face and the solution. But if your problem is not here, then you can put it down in the comment section.
This problem can occur and is common, there is no issue with the audio or ringer settings. But still, you should check the preview to check if the audio file has any problem or your iPhone is on low volume. Check Siri also by activating it and checking the voice levels.
If you are facing this problem then activate Siri and say “Turn up the volume”. After the command, check the Text volume and adjust the volume levels with the slider.
This is not a very common problem and most likely the audio and Siri both are working fine. Unfortunately, the only way to fix this issue is by updating the iOS version and hoping the bug is fixed. But if it’s not fixed in no update is available, try restarting your iPhone and checking again.
Hello there! This post couldn’t be written much better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He constantly kept preaching about this. I’ll send this
information to him. Pretty sure he will have a very good read.
Thanks for sharing!