iPhone 3gs ringer/silent switch to start an app for me?

April 15, 2010 1:20 PM

How can I get the ringer/vibrate/silent switch on the side of my iPhone 3GS to start an app within the iPhone when I flick the switch instead of silencing the ringer?

I would like for an application to start when I flick the ringer/silent switch above the volume buttons on the left side of my iPhone 3gs. Does anyone know how to do this?

posted by thankyoumuchly to computers & internet (4 answers total)

Unfortunately, it's not possible unless you jailbreak the phone and write the application launcher yourself.
posted by AaRdVarK at 1:30 PM on April 15, 2010

I'm afraid you can't do that. But with stock iPhone OS the only thing that switch can do is turn on/off the ringer. Maybe with a jailbreak but I haven't done that.
posted by birdherder at 1:32 PM on April 15, 2010

My iPhone 3GS is jailbroken. Can you point me in the right direction for figuring out what application/hardware calls I'd need to look at regarding the ringer/silent mode switch signal?

Or even point me towards a website that you know of that may help me learn more about this type of function?

Thank you :)
posted by thankyoumuchly at 1:43 PM on April 15, 2010

I doubt this is possible even with a jailbreak. Case in point, Activator is a very powerful application launcher/shortcut tool for jailbroken devices. It has pretty much every conceivable method for activation except for the ringer switch. I imagine if it was possible, they would have already included it.
posted by joshrholloway at 2:04 PM on April 15, 2010