We have all been there—you’re out in public with your iPhone, and somebody either wants to say hi or strike up a conversation with you. Since you don’t want to be rude, you have to turn your attention away from what you were doing, at least momentarily, and interact with them. Unfortunately, it seems like the person on the other end of that conversation always wants to know one thing—how do I silence my iPhone? How to MIND your iPhone when you’re SILENCE-ing it
Why mute is so important
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If you’ve never muted an iPhone, then it’s quite possible that your phone has interrupted a meeting, class or date—and not in a good way. Yes, we all have lives outside of our phones and mute is an important feature that helps us keep our personal life separate from our professional one. The thing is, iPhones are programmed to be loud and they go off at inappropriate times—for example, when people are giving speeches at meetings. Here’s how to use Siri (or any app on iOS) to mute any interruptions so you don’t get distracted
The importance of muting the lock screen
The lock screen appears when your device is locked, but has no passcode or Touch ID enabled. The information displayed here can be seen by anyone that picks up your phone, or if someone glances over while you’re reading a text message. You can prevent strangers from seeing private information on a locked phone by muting (or disabling) notifications and alerts that pop up on your lock screen. This includes text messages, app updates, music player controls and more.
Readjusting the notification settings
If you’re finding yourself still distracted by notifications, readjust your settings. Go into Settings > Notifications > and disable all of them except for Phone, Messages, and Email (Apple devices only). That way, alerts will be sent to silent mode immediately. Then go back in to Notifications and enable Do Not Disturb while Locked. This will keep notifications from displaying on screen if your phone is locked.
Turning off sounds for all notifications
If you’re busy working, answering emails, or keeping an eye on something that needs constant monitoring (like a pot of boiling water), silence notifications and ringer alerts by following these steps: 1. Tap Settings > Notifications. 2. Tap any app that has sounds enabled for notifications. 3. To turn off sounds for all alerts from that app, tap Sounds On/Off. 4. Tap None or Only Tab, depending on what Apple device you’re using (iPhone or iPad). 5.
What about audio feedback?
When you press and hold on an iOS device’s volume buttons, Apple tells you which mode your volume is set to: Ring/Silent. If there’s no audio feedback—meaning, if it doesn’t beep at all—you know that pressing volume down from Ring will mute all sounds and bring up a Do Not Disturb screen; pressing volume down from Silent won’t take you to Do Not Disturb.
When should I mute my phone?
One of my favorite features on my phone is Do Not Disturb which silences and blocks calls, texts, and notifications from waking up or bothering me. But how do I know if I should mute my phone? How do I turn off Do Not Disturb? Well, that’s what I’m here for. Read on!
What happens if I don’t do anything?
Unlike Android, iPhones don’t come with an app or a setting that lets you choose what apps are allowed to send notifications while they’re on Do Not Disturb. So once Do Not Disturb kicks in, all notifications go offline. If one of these apps suddenly becomes important, there’s no way for users to retrieve missed notifications other than resetting their phone.
How can I know that my phone has muted itself?
If you see an orange circle next to your phone’s icon on your home screen, then Siri has muted it. You can ask Siri a question (for example: Siri, is my phone muted?) or bring up Siri from a locked screen (by pressing and holding either of its two side buttons). To check that VoiceOver is still activated after muting, do one of these two things: Check that there’s an orange circle in front of your device in Control Center. That should confirm that voiceover is on and can be used with Siri. Or use VoiceOver yourself.
How do I make my iPhone ring when its on silent?
The first thing that you should try is turning off vibrate. To do so, double tap on a blank area of your screen and toggle off vibration from here. If its still not ringing, that could mean that its on silent mode. By default, Apple doesn’t allow for ringtones or alerts in silent mode.
What happens when you silence iPhone?
When your iPhone goes silent, it automatically puts itself into Do Not Disturb mode. You can silence your phone or change Do Not Disturb settings in a number of ways—but if you’re using Siri, take care with what you say! By default, iOS 10 interprets Hey Siri as a hotkey for sending an audio recording of whatever follows over Apple servers for processing. This can be problematic in certain environments where recording is forbidden or disallowed.
How do I turn my iPhone ringer back on?
Here’s how: Scroll to, and then tap, Do Not Disturb. In the Do Not Disturb window that appears, slide the ringer switch so that it turns green. To turn on alerts for calls from specific people only (or no one), tap Allow Calls From.
How do I unmute ringer on iPhone?
If, for some reason, you need to turn your ringer back on, just follow these steps: Unmute Your Ringer 1. Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb. 2. Slide Do Not Disturb from ON to OFF. 3.