a way to allow someone to wake me up when iphone is silent+sleep mode

December 26, 2024 6:58 PM

snowflake details within but a phone call is not ideal

when I sleep, I use the sleep focus, and my phone is on silent mode. I want the ability for some people to be able to wake me up (via ringing) if necessary

I am familiar with the "emergency bypass" setting, which does seem to work for phone calls, however the people who will need to wake me up are in a different country, so forcing them to do an international phone call isn't ideal. I'm in Japan, they are in the US if it matters.

I have an american phone call via line2, but it seems like the "emergency bypass" ring doesn't apply to line2--if it could, that would work perfectly. as is, it seems like even with emergency bypass the best I can get is that if they call twice, it will vibrate.

otherwise, I'm wondering if there is an app or something. I am happy to pay, but I do not want them to have to pay, and ideally they wouldn't have to install an app though I guess that's flexible.

any ideas?

I want to keep silent+sleep because 99.9% of the time, I do not want to be waken up by random apps and stuff. there just happens to be a few cases where people might want to wake me up, but the fact that it's an international call makes it tricky!

posted by wooh to Technology (12 answers total)

Could you make a Google voice account and only give it to the people who may need to contact you in an emergency?

Then you could set Google Voice app to be the only thing allowed through in sleep mode.

As long as you keep the # locked down in such a way that spammers aren’t going to start contacting you with it, the only time you’d get woken up is by your emergency contacts.
posted by seemoorglass at 7:29 PM on December 26

Are you saying your Japanese number is your primary number, and you also have a US number on another SIM, and you want specific folks in the US to be able to reach you on your primary number, bypassing your sleep mode, but you don't want them to be charged for an international call? If so, could you add them to your sleep mode bypass list, have them call you but you don't pick up, and then you can call them back to confirm: so you get woken up/ alerted, but they don't get charged?

(FWIW I was in Japan for 18 months and found Google Voice unreliable - some calls just didn't come through).
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness at 7:53 PM on December 26

Google voice also has a feature where you set it so only calls from a specific subset of people in your address book get to ring through to your phone and the rest go to the google voice mail. This will eliminate annoying calls from any one who happens to get access to the google voice number being able to make your real phone ring.
posted by metahawk at 7:55 PM on December 26

Could you share the “Find My” of your phone, and they could activate that sound tone on you?
posted by nickggully at 8:36 PM on December 26 [3 favorites]

My husband used to put his phone on Do Not Disturb but also silence it. He always said it made a difference, but I was never quite sure why as the latter should prevent the former from being an issue. In other words, as long as (in your case) Sleep focus is on, other apps/people shouldn't be allowed to have notifications make noise.

If you go to Settings app > Focus > Sleep Focus, you can see who is able to contact you while Sleep focus is on, and which apps can send notifications that will not just be silently delivered.

I am not familiar with Line2, but looking at their website, it seems like it's a VOIP app? In which case I'm surprised that your contacts calling twice through that pokes through Sleep focus at all. That said, as it's an app, you should be able to allow all notifications from it to ignore focus from the Settings mentioned in the prior paragraph.
posted by tubedogg at 9:07 PM on December 26

Settings > Focus > Sleep > Allow notifications from
posted by adamrice at 9:51 PM on December 26 [4 favorites]

Using my GV number here in the States to call a mobile phone in Japan, Google quotes me a rate of $0.04 per minute. Consider setting up a GV account for the person(s) in the US who might call you and have them use it ONLY when calling you in Japan. Set that GV number to ring through the sleep focus or the DND. When setting up the GV for said person(s), also deposit say $20 in the account. That give them 500 minutes of calling time to you. That is over 8 hours of calling.

Or, find out what these person(s) own calling rates to Japan is/are. Then send them, depending on the rate, between $20 and $40 as a credit against.

Also, input your number in Japan so that they don't have to input it to call, but call either tap a shortcut or go to your contact and call directly from the contact.

And, as 7 Minutes of Madness (would love to know the background on that name), mentioned above, can set a specific ringtone for them and NOT answer and then call them back. Tell them if you do not call back within say 5 minutes to call again.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:42 PM on December 26

If the US based caller(s) are using a landline which I doubt since you mentioned an app if necessary, I do not know an easy solution.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:44 PM on December 26

If they're also on iPhones they could FaceTime call you and avoid international charges.
posted by O9scar at 11:56 PM on December 26 [3 favorites]

Can you solve for the “other apps making sound” issue? I do not have audible notification sounds turned on for any applications other than Phone, and that works for me night and day. You could expand to Phone + Messages or whatever, if they’re the only people who would be texting you at that time.
posted by moosetracks at 6:42 AM on December 27

I do my international calls over WhatsApp. It doesn’t matter what phone number is used to set it up originally. Enroll just the people you need to hear from?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:23 AM on December 27 [1 favorite]

I believe you're not being clear or specific enough.

You want these people to wake you but don't want them to call... so... are they texting or using Signal or using some other app or ... ?

You can create a new Focus mode on your iPhone or alter the Sleep Focus mode to allow certain people in your contacts to break through, regardless of what means they're using to contact you.

When you say your phone is on silent mode, what do you mean? Have you flipped a hard physical switch found on pre-15 iPhones or are you just tapping the silent icon in the control panel? Further, if it's in Sleep mode without contact exceptions, what purpose is it providing?
posted by dobbs at 1:01 PM on December 27