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Comment by floam | Hacker News Reader

Oh man I feel like I have PTSD from procrastinating on projects for so many years. Heart rate is up, and I feel like drinking in excess.

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Not me... My phone and desktop have been on silent with all notifications off since summer of 99'... My family hates me because I'm always missing calls, but I sleep like a rock.

Navigation voice is also off in my car ritually since it started talking too much and unnecessarily pointing out places of interest, I always miss turns but oh well. No big deal.

I still wonder if there is a Google assistant command to turn ringers on and off though, maybe one year I'll look it up. I have a feeling that one day soon we may not have a choice of turning notifications off because it gets in the way of fake manufacturer notifications though...

There's a bunch of evil ManuFacturers out there lately creating fake notifications.

The iPhone DND switch is something that should be on every mobile device.

Android has it too, although it's software (but some have a hardware switch which kinda-sorta does similarly). I just leave my phone permanently on DND and whitelist a few contacts and apps.

> unnecessarily pointing out places of interest

I have never experienced this in Romania. But if the proprietary clouds give you trouble, try OsmAnd, which uses OpenStreetMap: https://osmand.net/

It is also available on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/

More recent Android has a feature where your phone will not present notifications when face down. Flip it back over to start getting calls, texts, and other chimes.

Shush mode iirc. I've had it on for multiple versions and it survives updates.

OnePlus has a physical button for toggling between normal, vibrate and silent.

Easily the best thing with their phones.

> unnecessarily pointing out places of interest,

Which app is this? I am really concerned about this.

> My family hates me because I'm always missing calls, but I sleep like a rock.

Is there any solution out there for Android to have the phone in silence, unless there is a call or message from specific contacts (whitelisting notifications for Android)?

You can set Android to still ring for starred contacts.

A true TIL!

Will this also work with messaging apps (e.g. Whatsapp) or only on the phone/sms app?

yes, it works for whatsapp; note that it does bypass Do Not Disturb, but won't make any noises if you've turned the phone to silent or vibrate.

I'm glad to be working from home, and I've taken to not picking up the phone outside of working hours / during lunch, or if there's a message, to do a glance at best - send a message or make an appointment, and if it's a message or e-mail, by default it can wait. My personal time is mine and if you want any of it, pay me.

In 2011 I shut down a failed business only to realize I had personally guaranteed a high five-digit loan. I offered the bank 50 cents on the dollar to release me, they told me to get lost ... so I did.

I silenced my phone while agencies called me for about three years. (Interestingly, that's the only thing they did - I never got a letter or an email or a text.)

The collections agencies went away, my credit was never dinged, and I learned that receiving on-demand phone calls are 100% unnecessary in my life.

Re: credit YMMV. I fully expected my credit to be impacted, as it well should have.

I've successfully waited out debts, even a felony possession warrant once the time I got caught buying MDMA and fled the state. Took their toll stress-wise, though.

My phone is on silent/vibrate at all times, and automatically goes into "do not disturb" mode in the evening. Only calls from very few specified numbers are allowed during DND mode.

If I had to listen to all the beeping and noises that other people seem to, I would have thrown the phone out the window by now.

Default Apple iPhone ringtone sent shivers down my spine for ages after a few years of having it as my on-call work phone.

Yes. Word of advice to anyone reading this: if you are given an on-call phone, change the ringtone to something you’re unlikely to ever hear in any other context.

I spent $1.99 on a custom ringtone in the Apple AppStore. Best $1.99 I ever spent because I’ve never heard another phone with this ringtone (can’t be said for ANY of the default ringtones).

That’s after several hours using GarageBand to create and export a custom ringtone. That was an utter nightmare because there’s just no easy way to get custom ringtones onto iOS unless you buy it from the AppStore.

You can't import your own custom ringtone on iOS?

What possible justification could Apple have for such a limitation? "Security" again?

You can. I did... eventually. It requires GarageBand and is an unbelievable pain.

What's painful about it? What's the process?

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