Analog vs. digital profile switching
I was using Android long enough to get used to some of it’s handy features that I now miss a lot on iPhone. One of these features is the way you switch your profiles (usually normal to silent and vice versa). iPhone has a different way to do it.
When I saw iPhone for the first time, I was excited about the handy profile switch it had near the volume buttons. It’s great when you can set ‘Silent’ without turning on the screen and attracting attention, say, on a meeting. You can do it not looking, even!
But in a few days, my initial excitement turned to disappointment. On Android (and even on a Symbian phone Nokia E51 I had before it), you could download an application that would look into your calendar and set/unset silent mode automatically, based on the events you have. That was great, I remember. I never had to worry about forgetting my sound on or off for a long time. If I chose the silent mode manually, it would stay until the end of my next calendar event and then went back to normal, again, automatically.
For iPhone, everything’s different. You have this fancy switch, but that’s it. No indication whether your phone is in ‘Silent’ mode, or not, except when you look at the switch. Nothing on the screen. No way to change profiles from within the system; no apps for auto change as well.
Usually I do not forget to switch my phone to ‘Silent’. Auto-switching was handy, but still, having no auto-switch doesn’t make a big deal. If I forget, I always can set it later, when something reminds me about it. The outside switch could be handy when I need to do this fast, but — let’s be honest — how often do you need to do it so fast?
And now we are at the point where auto switch matters. When you need to turn the sounds back on. And when you (most likely) will forget about this again and again. When you needed to mute all sounds, it was important — you had a meeting or any other event requiring silence. Now it’s not important anymore, so your brain will most likely skip and forget about sound switch. Digital profile setting works best in this case. Analog one… no, don’t tell me about it.
As I said, you could install a handy app for a profile switch for Android or Symbian phone. The only sort of apps for iPhone I saw on iTunes market are those that show you a pop-up reminder telling you to put the ‘Silent’ switch off. And, I must say, this is ridiculous! Getting an app for this sort of reminder, because your phone can’t do it automatically — you’re basically signing up for spam that your brain will most likely skip as well.
The only thing Apple did right with this silent mode is, actually, two things: your morning alarm, that will be loud no matter what, even if everything else is muted, and the ‘Find My Phone’ sound message, that will do the same. Latter even saved me a half an hour of search, when my phone sinked into the sofa with silent mode on. This is how it should be.
So, let’s wrap up. Digital profile switch? It may take longer time, but it allows extra features such as auto profile change based on calendar events or a pre-set time. This is actually very handy and helps to back up your mind when you’re most likely to forget your phone on ‘Mute’. Analog profile switch? This is handy for fast sounds mute, but no indicator icon and no auto-set-back makes this feature pretty useless.
I don’t blame Apple for this no-digital-switch thing. Analog thing can be useful, too. And if you think on having best of both worlds, you get another problem: the way it is designed on iPhone, how can you automatically set your analog switch back?
Here is my answer: if you re-design the switch and make it a button, like volume buttons on iPhone, then it would work. Or, even better, get rid of this button and keep this function up to the industry standards: long press on ‘Power’ gets you the profile menu.
Unfortunately, Apple isn’t used to follow industry standards. They set them. Usually it’s good, but sometimes it just doesn’t work.
