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Comment by nytesky | Hacker News Reader

I don’t know why Apple and Google haven’t published a geofencing protocol where locations can publish DND or limit internet access at these locations.

Basically the phone communicates with the venues via an AirTag like network and enters DND or becomes a school mode device.

It can be on by default, and some users like on call doctors or firefighter etc can override and take responsibility for managing themselves.

I would love my phone to know I’m in Church for a wedding or at a play and not have to remember to switch.

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> I would love my phone to know I’m in Church for a wedding or at a play and not have to remember to switch.

I kinda have the opposite problem. I turn my phone to silent because I'm at a restaurant or cinema or whatever, then 3 or 4 weeks later discover I never remembered to turn it back.

And I'm 100% OK with that, I've gotten good enough at turning the ringer on when I'm expecting a call, and not worrying about "missing calls" from people who aren't in my VIP list or who don't leave voicemail.

I have 2 rules set on my Pixel -

First one sets my phone to silent when I arrive at work (500m radius I think). It also sets it back to loud (or whatever the previous state was) automatically when I leave that radius.

Second one sets my phone to loud when my phone connects to my home WiFi. This helps with the problem you describe - but agreed, phone stuck on silent isn't generally an issue (until I miss some courier's phone call and kick myself).

Where do you set these rules?

Pixel phone settings -> system -> rules

It may be Pixel-exclusive, though I used to use the Google Assistant rules on my old phone and they mostly worked IIRC.

On iOS one could use an automation to automatically turn off silent mode every morning or so.

Semi-related, I've found this one of the primary reasons I wear a smartwatch. My phone now generally remains on silent 99% of the time, as does the watch. It's pretty easy to miss a vibration when a phone is in a pocket or on a table somewhere, but having a vibration on my wrist is almost always noticeable.

The few times I do not notice a notification, I'll pick up up when just keeping an eye on the time.

Not having bings , boops, and rings surround my life has been a huge nicety -- Far more than I'd have expected. Highly recommend if someone wants to be 'notified reliably' but has the modern day sounds also drive them a bit nuts...

Because we can't trust people to not be shitheads.

Without assistance from the location, one could build this based on location and openstreetmap data, for types of buildings.

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