flutter_system_ringtones

A Flutter plugin to list and preview system ringtones, alarms and notification sounds on Android and iOS.

Getting Started

Import the package

import 'package:flutter_system_ringtones/flutter_system_ringtones.dart';

Get a list of available sounds

final ringtones = await FlutterSystemRingtones.getRingtoneSounds();
final alarms = await FlutterSystemRingtones.getAlarmSounds();
final notifications = await FlutterSystemRingtones.getNotificationSounds();

Each Ringtone has an id, a human-readable title and a platform-specific uri (see below).

Previewing sounds

// Plays the sound natively (Android: RingtoneManager, iOS: AVAudioPlayer).
// Any currently playing sound is stopped first.
await FlutterSystemRingtones.play(ringtone);

// Stops the currently playing sound, if any. Safe to call when idle.
await FlutterSystemRingtones.stop();

play throws a PlatformException (code INVALID_ARGUMENT or PLAY_ERROR) if the sound cannot be resolved or played.

Notes:

• Only one sound plays at a time; there is no completion callback yet, so track "what did I start" in your own state (see the example app).
• Android: playback uses the ringtone audio stream — if the device's ringer volume is muted the preview is silent.
• iOS: the plugin sets the shared AVAudioSession category to .playback so previews are audible even when the silent switch is on. This may pause or duck other audio playing in your app.

Understanding the uri field

Android

uri is a content:// media URI (e.g. content://media/internal/audio/media/42) as provided by RingtoneManager. You can use it with:

• This plugin's play/stop for previews.
• RingtoneManager.getRingtone(context, uri) or MediaPlayer/ExoPlayer in native code.
• Dart audio packages that accept content URIs.

Setting a sound as the device ringtone (writing Settings.System) requires the WRITE_SETTINGS special permission and is outside the scope of this plugin.

iOS

uri is a file:// URL pointing into /System/Library/Audio/UISounds/ (e.g. file:///System/Library/Audio/UISounds/Anticipate.caf). These are read-only system files. You can use the URL with this plugin's play/stop, with AVAudioPlayer in native code, or with any Dart audio package that accepts file paths (Uri.parse(uri).toFilePath()).

There is no public API to set a system ringtone on iOS.

iOS behavior details

iOS has no public equivalent to Android's RingtoneManager. The implementation enumerates .caf/.m4r/.aiff/.wav files from /System/Library/Audio/UISounds/, which is readable by sandboxed apps. Because iOS does not categorise sounds into ringtone/alarm/notification types, the three methods return overlapping sets:

Method	Source
getRingtoneSounds()	/System/Library/Audio/UISounds/ (top-level)
getAlarmSounds()	All sounds (recursive), filtered to alarm/timer/bell-style keywords; falls back to the full list if nothing matches
getNotificationSounds()	Top-level + nano/ subdirectory

/System/Library/Audio/UISounds/ is an undocumented path, so treat the iOS listing as best effort — its contents can change between iOS versions.

Supported platforms

• Android: minSdk 21
• iOS: 12.0+