Silent Isn't Silent

[Joshua Jackson]

So, I've been making fun of an iPhone friend of mine for continually extolling the virtues of his new "Do Not Disturb" functionality.
I thought it was absurd that the phone was, in his words, "smart enough to know that you want to hear an alarm when it's on silent".
If I silence my phone, it is because I want it to be silent (surprise surprise).
So, I had my phone on silent, during a meeting, and took a screenshot.
It made a camera shutter sound!!!
That is the exact opposite of silent.
It was a tad embarrassing, to say the least.
Is there a way to actually silence the phone?
Dear me, I hope we don't need an added functionality to do what should be one of the most logical things (volume down turns down the volume).
JJ

 

[michail71]

It's hard to beat the iPhone's handling of audio volume and the little dedicated silence switch. For lack of a better explanation, apple just does it right.

However, WP8 seems to have such pleasant default sounds that I find accidents like that to not be as embarrassing. People actually comment on how pretty and pleasant it sounds.

 

[UnfixedPyle]

The button on the OS that "silences" the phone is just for the ringer (or other alerts). That is why it says ringer+vibrate or vibrate and the volume will still say 20/30 or whatever. It will still play music through the loud speaker (accidentally hit that one time while in a meeting). If you want the phone to be absolutely silent, you have to run the volume down to 0. This is where the one benefit of having 1 volume for the whole phone actually comes in handy cause you can run the ringer to 0 at the same time as all apps sounds, music, everything. If you do run the volume down to 0, it will automatically turn the ringer from ring+vibrate to vibrate. If you want the phone to be quiet and not vibrate at all you have to go into settings and turn vibrate off there (that is kind of stupid).

 

[Etyrnus]

Settings > Ringtones and Sounds > Camera Shutter. Turns it off for all pictures including screen shots. And I turned vibrate off anyway, saves on battery.

 

[someoneinwa]

For lack of a better explanation, apple just does it right..

No, Apple just does it Apple's way. That doesn't make it "right." To me, the "right" way to control sounds was the old Automatic setting on my Windows Mobile phones. While I liked that feature, it takes 3 seconds to shut my Lumia sounds off (both rings and everything else).

 

[SaucePolicy]

I noticed this too. Volume set to 0 still produces a screenshot sound effect. This has to be an oversight by Microsoft and something they could easily fix in an update.

 

[Etyrnus]

I noticed this too. Volume set to 0 still produces a screenshot sound effect. This has to be an oversight by Microsoft and something they could easily fix in an update.

Settings > Ringtones and Sounds > Camera Shutter. Turns it off for all pictures including screen shots.

 

[Joshua Jackson]

Volume 0 should be volume 0.
Hehehe...
Sent from my Verizon HTC 8X using Board Express

 

[SaucePolicy]

Thanks I know about that setting but the camera shutter sound doesn't fire when volume is 0 and the screenshot sound does. This is clearly an oversight. I can't see why it would be intentional. No worries, I'm sure it's an easy fix for MS. Aside from that there are times when playing certain songs through the speakers still produces sound when volume is set to 0. I agree volume zero should mean mute or there should be a setting below 0 called "mute" or "silent". I have faith that Microsoft can do this.

 

[zfarooq]

they should bring back the advanced settings from old NOkia "profiles"

 

[Joshua Jackson]

Voice to text and stuff dings when on silent, too.
Sent from my Verizon HTC 8X using Board Express

 

[3ibs]

Thanks for clarifying guys. I was annoyed by how when I set it to silent other apps would still make sounds for notifications etc.

I am in love with WP8 but it does have it's flaws.