iPhone text notifications silent when Messages open on Mac

Title: iPhone won’t play text notification sound when Messages is open on my Mac

Post:

I have a MacBook Pro (2021) running Ventura 13.0 and an iPhone 13. I use Messages on both devices with Handoff enabled.

The problem:

My iPhone does not play a text-message notification sound when a message arrives.

My settings on the iPhone are correct — sound enabled, alerts set to Persistent, “Repeat Alerts” set to 10 times, ringer on, Focus and Do Not Disturb fully off. I’ve checked these settings repeatedly and systematically.

I’ve seen this issue reported many times, but the replies often focus on notification settings, which doesn’t address what I’m seeing.

What I think may be happening:

I always keep Messages open on my Mac, since I prefer texting from the desktop. But I still want the iPhone to sound an alert when a message comes in.

From what I can tell, Apple devices seem to choose a single “active” device to deliver the notification sound. If the Mac is active or awake, it appears to take over and the iPhone remains silent. Adding an Apple Watch made this even more obvious — only one device alerts, and the others consider the notification “handled.”

My question:

Is this expected behavior in the Apple ecosystem?

In other words, is there any way to force the iPhone to always play a text sound, even if Messages is open and active on the Mac?

If not, it seems the only “fix” would be to stop using Messages on the Mac — which I’m not willing to do — so I’m trying to confirm whether this behavior is by design or a known issue.

Thank you.