4 ms·

The problem I have with the iPhone behaviour is twofold: 1) The most common uses for mute are situations where you absolutely don't want any sound (theatres, w

by jsankey 15y ago

The problem I have with the iPhone behaviour is twofold: 1) The most common uses for mute are situations where you absolutely don't want any sound (theatres, weddings, etc). The iPhone behaviour makes it much more difficult to guarantee this than the obvious behaviour. 2) It complicates something that has an obvious default behaviour. It's no longer a mute switch, it's a "mute non-explicitly-requested sounds switch". I could see the iPhone behaviour being useful -- it's more flexible after all. I just don't think it's worth compromising the common case.

LeafStorm 15y ago
Perhaps there should be "Mute" and "Mute Everything." Not sure how the UX would work for that - a slider for all three values could be tricky - but it would make it clear exactly what kind of muting you want.
- pilif 15y ago
  There is "mute everything": turn off your phone completely and it will get rid of all sounds - including alarms which won't go off unless the phone is turned on.
  - laserDinosaur 15y ago
    My phone rings the alarm even if the phone is turned off. That makes sense to me, I turn my phone off at night.
    - pilif 15y ago
      The article was talking about the iPhone, hence my suggestion being for the iPhone which does not ring the alarm when it's off. At least it didn't until 3.0 where I tried it last time.
- hexley 15y ago
  The other option (on the iPhone) is to turn the volume down to zero. Even alarms won't sound then.
snprbob86 15y ago
In practice, it's a "Mute- all sounds, but don't frustrait me when I try to watch a movie, or need to get to work on time -switch". Theaters, weddings, etc. are absolutely not the only time you want to mute things. A very large number of people work in shared offices and operate their phones in silent mode all-day, every-day. I for one really appreciate that I don't have to think about what state my mute switch is in when I get home hours later and try to watch a YouTube video. The common case is that your alarm is only ever set to wake you up in the morning and your timer is only ever set when you're sitting around, waiting for your dinner to be ready. It's very rare for you to set an alarm or a timer which will affect a quiet group environment. I don't think that a hard mute-always rule is worth compromising the common case ;-)
- haberman 15y ago
  > A very large number of people work in shared offices and operate their phones in silent mode all-day, every-day. If that's the case, can't you just turn the ringer to off in your phone's settings? Why do you need the silence switch for this? The silence switch is useful when you want to switch back and forth a lot.
- Wilya 15y ago
  That's definitely not the use case I would imagine for the Mute switch. The shared office situation should be handled by setting the phone into a "Vibrate only" mode. On "Mute" mode, my phone doesn't even vibrate, and that's exactly what I expect to happen.
- jsankey 15y ago
  In practice, it's a "Mute- all sounds, but don't frustrait me when I try to watch a movie, or need to get to work on time -switch". This definition is fuzzy, and thus harder to understand, which was my second point. Theaters, weddings, etc. are absolutely not the only time you want to mute things. I didn't say these were the only times, I claimed this was the most common use case. Granted, I don't have data to back this up, so perhaps I'm wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons to mute, this just seems to be the classi case that I anecdotally see the most. I for one really appreciate that I don't have to think about what state my mute switch is in when I get home hours later and try to watch a YouTube video. This is hardly a big problem, though, certainly not worthy of confusing behaviour. The common case is that your alarm is only ever set to wake you up in the morning and your timer is only ever set when you're sitting around, waiting for your dinner to be ready. It's very rare for you to set an alarm or a timer which will affect a quiet group environment. I agree you wouldn't normally have an alarm/timer set for these times. It's probably a rare mistake, but an embarrassing and costly one! These aren't the only ways that an iPhone will ignore the mute setting, though. This "feature" gives you plenty of ways to shoot yourself in the foot.
jopt 15y ago
On the other hand, the most common use for alarm is when you want to be woken up no matter what, which is more common than weddings.

by jsankey 15y ago

LeafStorm 15y ago

Perhaps there should be "Mute" and "Mute Everything." Not sure how the UX would work for that - a slider for all three values could be tricky - but it would make it clear exactly what kind of muting you want.

pilif 15y ago
There is "mute everything": turn off your phone completely and it will get rid of all sounds - including alarms which won't go off unless the phone is turned on.
- laserDinosaur 15y ago
  My phone rings the alarm even if the phone is turned off. That makes sense to me, I turn my phone off at night.
  - pilif 15y ago
    The article was talking about the iPhone, hence my suggestion being for the iPhone which does not ring the alarm when it's off. At least it didn't until 3.0 where I tried it last time.
hexley 15y ago
The other option (on the iPhone) is to turn the volume down to zero. Even alarms won't sound then.

snprbob86 15y ago

In practice, it's a "Mute- all sounds, but don't frustrait me when I try to watch a movie, or need to get to work on time -switch". Theaters, weddings, etc. are absolutely not the only time you want to mute things. A very large number of people work in shared offices and operate their phones in silent mode all-day, every-day. I for one really appreciate that I don't have to think about what state my mute switch is in when I get home hours later and try to watch a YouTube video. The common case is that your alarm is only ever set to wake you up in the morning and your timer is only ever set when you're sitting around, waiting for your dinner to be ready. It's very rare for you to set an alarm or a timer which will affect a quiet group environment. I don't think that a hard mute-always rule is worth compromising the common case ;-)

haberman 15y ago
> A very large number of people work in shared offices and operate their phones in silent mode all-day, every-day. If that's the case, can't you just turn the ringer to off in your phone's settings? Why do you need the silence switch for this? The silence switch is useful when you want to switch back and forth a lot.
Wilya 15y ago
That's definitely not the use case I would imagine for the Mute switch. The shared office situation should be handled by setting the phone into a "Vibrate only" mode. On "Mute" mode, my phone doesn't even vibrate, and that's exactly what I expect to happen.
jsankey 15y ago
In practice, it's a "Mute- all sounds, but don't frustrait me when I try to watch a movie, or need to get to work on time -switch". This definition is fuzzy, and thus harder to understand, which was my second point. Theaters, weddings, etc. are absolutely not the only time you want to mute things. I didn't say these were the only times, I claimed this was the most common use case. Granted, I don't have data to back this up, so perhaps I'm wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons to mute, this just seems to be the classi case that I anecdotally see the most. I for one really appreciate that I don't have to think about what state my mute switch is in when I get home hours later and try to watch a YouTube video. This is hardly a big problem, though, certainly not worthy of confusing behaviour. The common case is that your alarm is only ever set to wake you up in the morning and your timer is only ever set when you're sitting around, waiting for your dinner to be ready. It's very rare for you to set an alarm or a timer which will affect a quiet group environment. I agree you wouldn't normally have an alarm/timer set for these times. It's probably a rare mistake, but an embarrassing and costly one! These aren't the only ways that an iPhone will ignore the mute setting, though. This "feature" gives you plenty of ways to shoot yourself in the foot.

jopt 15y ago

On the other hand, the most common use for alarm is when you want to be woken up no matter what, which is more common than weddings.