for the love of.....volume

[eric12341]

ms isn't dumb (mostly), there's a reason they didn't just make it "really easy" to toggle a hundred features. One of the things i love about metro is how big the options/buttons are, how easy to hit them it is without having to squint at your phone and be totally precise. Think of the people with hotdog fingers. Where would they put these audio options to toggle off and on? Expand the drop down menu up top so that it covers half the screen? Have more than one icon on it so that people can complain it's too easy to hit silent instead of vibrate and vice versa? They wanted a minimalist design and personally i like it. Believe it or not i bet most people don't switch back and forth between on, vibrate, and silent several hours a day. They put the most common things on the surface, and put the other options beneath. If you can find a way for them to add that functionality in without ending up with buttons and toggles everywhere, then by all means share it with them. I bet they add it if it's a good enough balance. But no i don't want flips and switches and toggles everywhere like in android, so that i have to be careful where i mash my finger when i'm swiftly navigating the ui.

this!!!

 

[ubizmo]

MS isn't dumb (mostly), there's a reason they didn't just make it "really easy" to toggle a hundred features. One of the things I love about metro is how big the options/buttons are, how easy to hit them it is without having to squint at your phone and be totally precise. Think of the people with hotdog fingers. Where would they put these audio options to toggle off and on? Expand the drop down menu up top so that it covers half the screen? Have more than one icon on it so that people can complain it's too easy to hit silent instead of vibrate and vice versa? They wanted a minimalist design and personally I like it. Believe it or not I bet most people don't switch back and forth between on, vibrate, and silent several hours a day. They put the most common things on the surface, and put the other options beneath. If you can find a way for them to add that functionality in without ending up with buttons and toggles everywhere, then by all means share it with them. I bet they add it if it's a good enough balance. But no I don't want flips and switches and toggles everywhere like in Android, so that I have to be careful where I mash my finger when I'm swiftly navigating the UI.

They could do it the way BlackBerry has been doing it from the beginning. There's a small icon on the home and lock screen that shows the current sound profile, so you don't have to drill into any menus to see the phone's current state. To change the profile, you click on that icon and choose the one you want. You can create and name your own sound profiles, too. For a quick toggle between vibrate and the last profile, there's a shortcut: long press the 'Q' key.

I use this functionality all the time. When I go into a meeting (or a movie), i hit 'Q' on the way in and on the way out. My normal sound profile is one that I defined myself. It's called "mellow" and it has no email alerts, a fairly strong SMS alert, a low calendar alert, and vibrates only when the phone is in the case. If I'm expecting an email and want to know when it might have arrived, I switch to the BB "normal" profile, which has an alert for incoming mail. In some circumstances, I switch to the "silent" profile, with no sound or vibrations. And I get at all of this by tapping an icon no bigger than WP's wifi icon. Smaller, in fact.

My T-Mobile SideKick had even better notifications. I could use different configurations on different days, and have them change automatically at different times of day. That was baked into the OS. I can do the same on my BB, but I have to buy an app for it. In fact that app interfaces with the BB Calendar, so that when I create a meeting or other event, I get the option of having the BB automatically change the sound profile at the beginning and end of it, so I don't even have to remember to press 'Q'. This app doesn't add any buttons; it simply adds options to the Calendar menu.

When you install an app that has sound notifications on a BB, the options for that app get added to the main profiles menu. So if you get Google Talk, options for incoming message sounds etc. will show up in the Profiles menu. If you uninstall it, they go away.

The BB is famous for it's LED notifications. One of the best-selling apps allows the user to choose a different color for different kinds of alerts. I don't bother with this myself, but the fact that these apps exist shows that there is a demand for being able to take make notifications, both visual and sound, work the way the user wants them to work. And it can easily be done without cluttering up the home screen.

No, MS isn't dumb. But there's no doubt in my mind that there are more users of WP who would be very happy to see features of this sort than there are those who are indifferent to them.

 

[eric12341]

No it's only in forums of people who are used to this kind of thing who want this(no offense). Looking at reviews on carrier sites you don't see anyone complaining about this.

 

[selfcreation]

No it's only in forums of people who are used to this kind of thing who want this(no offense). Looking at reviews on carrier sites you don't see anyone complaining about this.

that's because the 52,056 Members on his site think they count for the majority of the
XX MILLIONS of WP users. lol

this site doesn't even count for 10% of the Wp users. ( and only 1% of the members actual post! lol

so like 0.001% of people on this site is FAR from being what people want ( not saying you guys are wrong to want it ) just dont assume your always right

and we all know what ASSUME stands for. A$$*U*ME ,
lol that's what my boss says to me when i ASSUME what a client wants! you make a A** of your self. hehe

again, I am not insulting any one

 

[oldpueblo]

Truth is, the best compromise I can think of is have it toggle three ways leaving the design the way it is. Right now you tap to toggle between your two choices. Just make it three and call it good, no other changes. Nice and easy.

 

[ubizmo]

No it's only in forums of people who are used to this kind of thing who want this(no offense). Looking at reviews on carrier sites you don't see anyone complaining about this.

If it's a question of demand, we'll just have to disagree. I was mainly responding to the point that this functionality would entail a lot of extra junk on the home screen. The Blackberry system disproves this.

 

[le93baron]

OK, I read through this whole thread and it was very informative to listen to both sides of the issue - whether the various sounds on the phone (calls, music, notifications, alerts, emails, etc.) should have one or independent volume controls. I can appreciate both points of view. I kinda lean to the side that says we should have independent volume settings but I understand the downsides of this.

I still have one simple question though.
How do I set the volume which controls the volume level I hear when I put the phone to my ear after taking a call - when I'm not currently in a phone call? Or can I only adjust this level once I'm in a phone call? If it defaults to the volume level I had from the previous call, this might be too loud if the new caller speaks very loud, or vice versa.

Thanks

 

[oldpueblo]

OK, I read through this whole thread and it was very informative to listen to both sides of the issue - whether the various sounds on the phone (calls, music, notifications, alerts, emails, etc.) should have one or independent volume controls. I can appreciate both points of view. I kinda lean to the side that says we should have independent volume settings but I understand the downsides of this.

I still have one simple question though.
How do I set the volume which controls the volume level I hear when I put the phone to my ear after taking a call - when I'm not currently in a phone call? Or can I only adjust this level once I'm in a phone call? If it defaults to the volume level I had from the previous call, this might be too loud if the new caller speaks very loud, or vice versa.

Thanks

Call your voicemail?

 

[independentvolume]

My first thread ever on here. lol. Also, bump because wp8 NEEDS independent volume controls. Crimeny cripes sakes.

 

[infoleather]

When I play a video, independent phone volume. Do not even have the the keyboard volume of the set.

 

[socialcarpet]

I'm not a fan of feature creep either, but this is a feature that should be included in any smartphone OS. I hope to see some kind of independent volume control in WP8, even if it's very basic it would be better than nothing.