On Earth the compound is encountered mainly as a solution, not as the solid, but [NH4]SH ice is believed to be a substantial component of the cloud decks of the gas-giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, with sulfur produced by its photolysis responsible for the color of some of those planets' clouds.

[4] According to a detailed 1895 report, hydrogen sulfide reacts with concentrated aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature to give [NH4]2S·2[NH4]SH.

This conversion illustrates the ease of the following equilibrium: Ammonia and hydrogen sulfide each have a powerful and unpleasant smell.

Ammonium sulfide solutions are used occasionally in photographic developing, to apply patina to bronze, and in textile manufacturing.

The 1990–91 CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics gives information for anhydrous ammonium monosulfide ([NH4]2S) and ammonium pentasulfide ([NH4]2S5) as separate from anhydrous ammonium hydrosulfide ([NH4]SH), describing the former two both as yellow crystalline substances that are soluble in cold water and alcohol, and which both decompose in hot water or at high temperature in general (115 °C for the pentasulfide), but the latter as a white crystalline solid (which also decomposes in hot water).