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Folks, I need your knowledge here.

Think about the following sittuation - my app need to set my iphone to vibrate mode on a certain time and get it back to playing sounds mode (for call receiving, sms, email, all common sound notifications) some minutes later.

I've already googled that, and didn't find a good, apple accetable way of doing that:

Programmatically opening the settings app (iPhone)

Is it possible to dynamically alter an iphone app's settings page in the settings app?

Display iphone application settings within your application

How do I launch my settings bundle from my application? [This one here is interesting, as fas I as find a way to know what is the key for the settings I'm interested in]

How do I launch my settings bundle from my application? [It mentions I can do that, but does not give an idea of how =(]

Is it possible to dynamically alter an iphone app's settings page in the settings app? [If this is true, I wouldn't be able to do what I want...]

Does anyone there has an idea of how do I do that via app? Many thanks in advance.

Community
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Cadu
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5 Answers5

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Think of this from the user perspective - that silent switch is there for a reason. If I want the phone silent, I will move that switch myself. Not only will the API not let you do this, it's simply a bad idea.

Kendall Helmstetter Gelner
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  • And imagine how annoying it would be if you missed an important call because the phone didn't ring while you were using that app... – NickFitz Sep 23 '09 at 16:51
  • Guys, the idea of the application is good, don't worry =) This would never be annoying or smtg like that. I'd use APNS...But thanks anyway. – Cadu Sep 23 '09 at 17:43
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    The idea of the application might be good, but you need to remember that this will be one of many applications we install on our phones. It's still a bad idea, sorry. I might forget to close your app and therefore leave my phone on silent mode without realizing it. Also, that silent switch on the phone is a hard switch. How do you plan on dealing with the state of that switch? – marcc Nov 28 '09 at 15:01
  • It's actually an awesome idea. When I'm in class or a meeting, I won't necessarily remember until the damn thing rings and I get murderous glares. If I could schedule the ringer to turn on and off, I'd just point it at my class schedule and be done with it. – John O Sep 07 '12 at 15:08
  • @JohnO A former classmate made that exact app for android. – AlexanderN Sep 10 '12 at 01:29
  • This answer is not good. The required app shouldn't have to put the phone in "silent" mode; it should simultaneously enable the vibrating mode while disabling the sound mode on a schedule. The Silent mode switch could still work on top of the changes made by the app. I'm also looking for an app like this. BIG BOO for the moderator that closed the question as "too localized" – Pat Apr 29 '14 at 13:16
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Check out the following app:

http://iphonepackers.info/autosilent/

Looks like they've found a way to do it, so it's likely possible. The problem with the "Auto Silent" app is that it's not available from the App Store. It only works on a jailbroken phone, installed with Cydia. I have yet to find an app on the Appstore that does something similar.

Apple's current design is terrible. Many applications choose to override the silent switch, including Apple's own Timer (Clock app), Alarm (Clock app), iPod and YouTube. While this was likely intentional, 3rd party applications can choose which volume control to use and thus don't respond to the physical silent switch consistently. More info:

http://txfx.net/2008/07/15/iphone-silent-switch-is-ignored-by-many-applications/

Many people have said they'd prefer to have a blackberry interface where you can quickly select from multiple user-customizable profiles.

For non-developers who found this thread, in hopes of finding a solution, consider the following physical device (it's a custom form factor headphone jack that can plug into the phone or charging base, nullifying sounds like mail/sms/etc):

http://www.thesilentnight.com/

Regards.

ives
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I do not think you can put the phone on vibrate programatically, dont believe the SDK allows you to do this.

Daniel
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There is not an Apple-approved way of controlling this. The theory I have for this is that individual apps should not override systems settings. For instance, when I set my phone to vibrate, I do not want it making noise, period. The user experience would be less than optimal if rogue apps were able to get outside their sandbox and fiddle with settings that I set for a reason.

Finally, if one were able to figure this out, my guess would be that the app stands a good chance of getting rejected.

mikestew
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  • I heard that there is a way, but I also heard apple would never approve that...Thanks anyway. – Cadu Sep 23 '09 at 17:43
  • not a good answer; the application could change to vibrating mode back and forth but the silent switch could have precedence on the setting. – Pat Apr 29 '14 at 13:21
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A user should be allowed to control the volume of his device, either through hardware or software switching. There is no good reason to remove this decision from user control by limiting/controlling access through software. If the user wants to mute, reduce or increase volume or vibration, automatically, via software, it should be the user's decision.

nick
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