Make iPhone SMS wake me up!

July 12, 2008 7:16 AM

How can I make sure that the iPhone wakes me up when I get a text message? Is there a way to change the SMS ringtone to something louder/longer, make it repeat a few more times, or even just make it play the SMS notification sound through a pair of speakers plugged in via the headphone jack? It seems like it always plays SMS, mail, and alarm sounds through the built-in speaker. I'm looking for ways that do not involve jailbreaking my phone; I've already read about "SMSNotify" and even after the 2.0 jailbreak comes out I'd like to avoid using it if at all possible.

I receive SMS messages from work that I need to be aware of and respond to as quickly as possible. I proudly bought an iPhone 3G yesterday, but today I got paged at 6am and didn't discover it until I woke up at 9. Luckily it wasn't anything critical but now I'm very concerned about my purchase.

Right now the only options I can find for SMS are to choose from a small set of pre-selected tones with no ability to add my own louder/longer alert. In addition, it seems that alerts like the alarm clock and the SMS ringtone always play through the phone's internal speaker even when a pair of headphones is plugged in, which seems like something I should be able to change. Am I really stuck with this? Are there any other tricks I could pull to ensure that I wake up when the iPhone's SMS sound goes off? Am I just going to have to go ahead and jailbreak it when the 2.0 release becomes available in order to be able to use something like SMSNotify?

posted by ckolderup to technology (7 comments total)

found thread:
http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/iphone-modifications/text-message-sound-21267.html

looks like "the only way to do this is by jailbreaking your phone, no other way but."
posted by joemako at 7:39 AM on July 12, 2008

It's possible to use your own ringtones. See here, also read the comments. I believe ringtones can be up to 30 seconds long.

I'm surprised the SMS sound comes out the iphone speaker instead of speakers plugged into the headphones. Maybe it's being smart, in that it knows you aren't playing music, so it thinks it should use the internal speaker (like as if, you temporarily pulled the headphones off).

I plug my iPhone into a Logitech speaker dock at night. This uses the ipod jack, and not the headphone jack. An SMS does indeed wake me up.
posted by whiskeyspider at 7:39 AM on July 12, 2008

Sorry, SMS doesn't use ringtones.
posted by whiskeyspider at 7:42 AM on July 12, 2008

joemako: I had seen some things like that, but most (including that thread) were 6+ months old and I wasn't sure if anything had changed in the firmware updates that had come out since then.

whiskeyspider: Wait, so when you use the Logitech speaker dock it plays the SMS sounds through that device rather than the iPhone's internal speakers? Is it this?
posted by ckolderup at 7:47 AM on July 12, 2008

I used to carry a pager for just that reason, but work took it away. Before I gave it up, I recorded the sound it made. It is the world's most annoying sound, besides the Lexmark printer error beep, but it works. Share and enjoy.

I'm not sure if whiskeyspider is talking about the iPhone or SMS in general, but I was able to make this my sms "ringtone" on a Razr V3. I would be shocked if the iPhone doesn't have this capability. On the other hand, that would be the fatal flaw every Apple product must have.
posted by gjc at 9:12 AM on July 12, 2008

I just meant the iPhone SMS. I'm a little surprised you can't set your own sounds for it. I just assumed it worked like ringtones.

Yes, I have a similar version to that Logitech speaker. When I connect my iPhone to it, it complains that it is not an "iPhone-compatible" device, but works fine anyways. I use it to play a white-noise track while I sleep. If I get a call or an SMS it will interrupt the white-noise and play phone sound.
posted by whiskeyspider at 10:40 AM on July 12, 2008

okay, I'm going to look into this speaker and give it a try. Thanks!
posted by ckolderup at 8:55 PM on July 13, 2008