Need favorite iPhone contact to vibe, not ring, when focus on
June 17, 2024 1:17 PM Subscribe
Mr. Doodly and I are each other’s favorite iPhone contacts, como Dios manda.
However, Mr. Doodly’s new job requires a higher degree of decorum than in the past.
He needs to put his phone on DND (or whatever focus works) and refuse (or I guess silence, but preferably refuse) all calls and texts except mine. He’d like mine to come through, but on “vibrate” only.
We each have “breakthrough” status in each other’s contact list. However, I can’t find a way to make my calls and texts to him only vibe and not ring.
Has anyone cracked this, or even found a good workaround?
Assume both iPhones are new enough to be updated to the most recent iOS.
We each have “breakthrough” status in each other’s contact list. However, I can’t find a way to make my calls and texts to him only vibe and not ring.
Has anyone cracked this, or even found a good workaround?
Assume both iPhones are new enough to be updated to the most recent iOS.
As a workaround, can he not just toggle his phone into silent/vibrate mode? That way the phone will only vibrate when the breakthrough person contacts him, assuming that's otherwise part of the way his phone delivers notifications. If remembering that is a challenge, he can set a location-based reminder to pop up that tells him to put his phone in silent when he is at work.
Not sure if I am missing something so forgive me if I have misunderstood.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:28 PM on June 17 [3 favorites]
Not sure if I am missing something so forgive me if I have misunderstood.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:28 PM on June 17 [3 favorites]
Can he just flip the switch on the side of the phone down to silent mode? I've not played with focus mode or breakthrough or all that, but if he needs his phone to never actually ring, and just vibrate instead, that should do it.
posted by markslack at 1:28 PM on June 17 [1 favorite]
posted by markslack at 1:28 PM on June 17 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far.
To clarify, just putting the phone on silent is kind of a worst case solution because he gets A LOT of notifications that can’t all be managed away just yet.
The objective is that the only incoming notification he gets during work would be me, only just a vibe.
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:43 PM on June 17
To clarify, just putting the phone on silent is kind of a worst case solution because he gets A LOT of notifications that can’t all be managed away just yet.
The objective is that the only incoming notification he gets during work would be me, only just a vibe.
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:43 PM on June 17
Turn on Do Not Disturb. Make an exception for people in the Favorites list, i.e. you. Then turn the ringer off. That should do it.
posted by Melismata at 1:48 PM on June 17 [9 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 1:48 PM on June 17 [9 favorites]
As far as I can tell, it's not possible to set an iPhone to vibrate or ring mode except by the hardware switch. This may have changed with the iPhone 15, which replaced that switch with an "action button."
It's still possible to set a Work focus that only passes through notifications from you, but he'll still need to manually set his phone to vibrate.
He might be able to do something clever with Shortcuts. It looks like one can set up an automation that triggers a shortcut in response to an incoming text message from a certain person, and "vibrate" is one of the actions one can trigger. I haven't tried this myself, and I don't know if focus modes would defeat that. This wouldn't do anything for phone calls though. He could also create an automation that puts him in Work focus when he arrives at a certain location, and turns it off when he leaves.
posted by adamrice at 1:53 PM on June 17 [3 favorites]
It's still possible to set a Work focus that only passes through notifications from you, but he'll still need to manually set his phone to vibrate.
He might be able to do something clever with Shortcuts. It looks like one can set up an automation that triggers a shortcut in response to an incoming text message from a certain person, and "vibrate" is one of the actions one can trigger. I haven't tried this myself, and I don't know if focus modes would defeat that. This wouldn't do anything for phone calls though. He could also create an automation that puts him in Work focus when he arrives at a certain location, and turns it off when he leaves.
posted by adamrice at 1:53 PM on June 17 [3 favorites]
Turn on Do Not Disturb. Make an exception for people in the Favorites list, i.e. you. Then turn the ringer off. That should do it.
Yep. This is what I did for my ex. Can't control the ringing, but at least it puts up a firewall for any but expressly indicated contacts.
posted by mykescipark at 1:57 PM on June 17 [2 favorites]
Yep. This is what I did for my ex. Can't control the ringing, but at least it puts up a firewall for any but expressly indicated contacts.
posted by mykescipark at 1:57 PM on June 17 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Ok, trying stuff, it turns out that I’m his favorite and he’s my favorite, and we’re each other’s emergency contact, but when I call him on dnd OR silent mode with ringer off, his phone rings and vibes. When he calls me on dnd, my phone rings, but with silent mode and ringer off, my phone only vibes. (IOW, exact same conditions, different outcomes).
So maybe this is a phone-level issue? I have an 11; he has a 3rd Gen SE.
posted by toodleydoodley at 2:44 PM on June 17
So maybe this is a phone-level issue? I have an 11; he has a 3rd Gen SE.
posted by toodleydoodley at 2:44 PM on June 17
I have not tried this, but could he not get a silent ringtone and assign it to you? Of course, this would mean you'd always be silent and vibrate.
So maybe this is a phone-level issue? I have an 11; he has a 3rd Gen SE.
Are you running the same iOS?
posted by dobbs at 3:08 PM on June 17 [1 favorite]
So maybe this is a phone-level issue? I have an 11; he has a 3rd Gen SE.
Are you running the same iOS?
posted by dobbs at 3:08 PM on June 17 [1 favorite]
Best answer: This is almost certainly not a phone-level issue, but an OS version and/or configuration one. I recognize a lot of us have been scratching our heads over this but I'm pretty well informed about iOS settings (including in a professional capacity) and I'm 99.99% sure that's not a thing, and it would be... extremely odd for it to be a limitation at the hardware level, to put it lightly.
I would check this:
* On his phone, go to your contact info
* Tap Edit
* Pull up the ringtone
* There should be (at least there is on recent OS versions) a toggle switch for "Emergency bypass" which explicitly says it'll ring even when the phone is in Do Not Disturb or Silent mode.
Is this toggled On or Off?
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:33 PM on June 17 [6 favorites]
I would check this:
* On his phone, go to your contact info
* Tap Edit
* Pull up the ringtone
* There should be (at least there is on recent OS versions) a toggle switch for "Emergency bypass" which explicitly says it'll ring even when the phone is in Do Not Disturb or Silent mode.
Is this toggled On or Off?
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:33 PM on June 17 [6 favorites]
Response by poster: Yes, we are running the same iOS.
On further investigation, I think Tomorrowful has it. I did not realize that “emergency contact” and “emergency breakthrough” were not linked. We turned off the emergency breakthrough for my contract on his phone and that seems to have worked, and I am still the emergency contact.
Thanks everyone for your time and effort. I really appreciate it.
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:38 PM on June 17 [1 favorite]
On further investigation, I think Tomorrowful has it. I did not realize that “emergency contact” and “emergency breakthrough” were not linked. We turned off the emergency breakthrough for my contract on his phone and that seems to have worked, and I am still the emergency contact.
Thanks everyone for your time and effort. I really appreciate it.
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:38 PM on June 17 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:20 PM on June 17 [3 favorites]