[android] How to play ringtone/alarm sound in Android

I have been looking everywhere how to play a ringtone/alarm sound in Android.

I press a button and I want to play a ringtone/alarm sound. I could not find an easy, straightforward sample. Yes, I already looked at Alarm clock source code... but it is not straightforward and I cannot compile it.

I cannot make this work:

Uri alert = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_ALARM); 
mMediaPlayer = new MediaPlayer();
mMediaPlayer.setDataSource(this, alert);
final AudioManager audioManager = (AudioManager)getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);

if (audioManager.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_ALARM) != 0) {
    player.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_ALARM);
    player.setLooping(true);
    player.prepare();
    player.start();
}

I get this error:

04-11 17:15:27.638: ERROR/MediaPlayerService(30): Couldn't open fd for
content://settings/system/ringtone

So.. please if somebody knows how to play a default ringtone/alarm let me know.

I prefer not to upload any file. Just play a default ringtone.

If a user has never set an alarm on their phone, the TYPE_ALARM can return null. You can account for this with:

Uri alert = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_ALARM);

if(alert == null){
    // alert is null, using backup
    alert = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION);

    // I can't see this ever being null (as always have a default notification)
    // but just incase
    if(alert == null) {  
        // alert backup is null, using 2nd backup
        alert = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_RINGTONE);                
    }
}

Copying an audio file to the sd card of the emulator and selecting it via media player as the default ringtone does indeed solve the problem.

You could use this sample code:

Uri ringtoneUri = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_ALARM);
Ringtone ringtoneSound = RingtoneManager.getRingtone(getApplicationContext(), ringtoneUri)

if (ringtoneSound != null) {
    ringtoneSound.play();
}

Here's some sample code:

Uri notification = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION);
MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(getApplicationContext(), notification);
mediaPlayer.start();

You can simply play a setted ringtone with this:

Uri notification = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION);
Ringtone r = RingtoneManager.getRingtone(getApplicationContext(), notification);
r.play();

This is the way I've done:

Uri notification = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION);
MediaPlayer mp = MediaPlayer.create(getApplicationContext(), notification);
mp.start();

It is similar to markov00's way, but uses MediaPlayer instead of Ringtone which prevents interrupting other sounds, like music, that might already be playing in the background.

For the future googlers: use RingtoneManager.getActualDefaultRingtoneUri() instead of RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(). According to its name, it would return the actual uri, so you can freely use it. From documentation of getActualDefaultRingtoneUri():

Gets the current default sound's Uri. This will give the actual sound Uri, instead of using this, most clients can use DEFAULT_RINGTONE_URI.

Meanwhile getDefaultUri() says this:

Returns the Uri for the default ringtone of a particular type. Rather than returning the actual ringtone's sound Uri, this will return the symbolic Uri which will resolved to the actual sound when played.

You can push a MP3 file in your /sdcard folder using DDMS, restart the emulator, then open the Media application, browse to your MP3 file, long press on it and select "Use as phone ringtone".

Error is gone!

Edit: same trouble with notification sounds (e.g. for SMS) solved using Ringdroid application

This works fine:

AudioManager audioManager = (AudioManager) getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
MediaPlayer thePlayer = MediaPlayer.create(getApplicationContext(), RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION));

try {
    thePlayer.setVolume((float) (audioManager.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_NOTIFICATION) / 7.0)),
                        (float) (audioManager.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_NOTIFICATION) / 7.0)));
} catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

thePlayer.start();

It may be late but there is a new simple solution to this question for who ever wants it.
In kotlin

val player = MediaPlayer.create(this,Settings.System.DEFAULT_RINGTONE_URI)
player.start()

Above code will play default ringtone but if you want default alarm, change

Settings.System.DEFAULT_RINGTONE_URI

to

Settings.System.DEFAULT_ALARM_ALERT_URI

Your example is basically what I'm using. It never works on the emulator, however, because the emulator doesn't have any ringtones by default, and content://settings/system/ringtone doesn't resolve to anything playable. It works fine on my actual phone.

public class AlarmReceiver extends WakefulBroadcastReceiver {

    @Override
    public void onReceive(final Context context, Intent intent) {
        //this will update the UI with message
        Reminder inst = Reminder.instance();
        inst.setAlarmText("");

        //this will sound the alarm tone
        //this will sound the alarm once, if you wish to
        //raise alarm in loop continuously then use MediaPlayer and setLooping(true)
        Uri alarmUri = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_ALARM);
        if (alarmUri == null) {
            alarmUri = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_RINGTONE);
        }
        Ringtone ringtone = RingtoneManager.getRingtone(context, alarmUri);
        ringtone.play();

        //this will send a notification message
        ComponentName comp = new ComponentName(context.getPackageName(),
                AlarmService.class.getName());
        startWakefulService(context, (intent.setComponent(comp)));
        setResultCode(Activity.RESULT_OK);
    }
}