I was complaining about an issue I have on my Motorola Droid when my friend stopped me and said “just blog about itâ€. Let me start by saying lately my wife constantly complains of my mobile phone reliability. I rarely answer my phone when she calls. There are so many jokes here, but she believes the problems I am having are associated with my new phone number or better yet Google Voice (GV). To her GV is a new element, which in reality I have been using GV since it was Grand Central (about 2.5 yrs). I never gave her my Google Voice number because she always knows where I am thus knows what number to call. Since GV is such an integrated experience on Android when I make calls my GV number shows up in caller ID. Either way here is the issue. I accidentially put my phone in silent mode constantly, which is why I am not answering when she calls, because of the location of the volume buttons, and because of the way the phone gets set into silent mode. I always have my phone on vibrate, I hate ringtones. In fact, I often get ribbed because my ring tone is vibrate.
The Problem
On the iPhone I had a physical switch that changed my phone from ring to vibrate. On the Motorola Droid the volume control is a multi purpose switch; it controls the volume of the media players; it controls the volume of the ringer; and it controls if the phone is on ring, vibrate, or silent. Imagine this, the volume for the ringer moves in the following path, silent (no notification), to vibrate, to volume 1 – 10. When you move the volume down from ring level 1 to vibrate the phone vibrates. Conversely, if you go from vibrate to level one you get an audible noise. The issue is two fold. One is the ability to go from vibrate to silent is too easy. Two, with an action that is super easy like this, that also has no indication except an on screen display, and accidental press when putting a phone in a cup holder or pocket will cause you to miss calls because the phone has now been put into silent mode.
It can happen to anyone
Initially you would think, why is this a problem, or maybe you are getting my issue. I leave my phone on vibrate 100% of the time. The issue is, an accidential touch of the volume switch down moves it from vibrate to silent. Remember this change provides no notification. The end result is my phone moves to silent and I never hear it ring. For me this design is like the accidental page turning in the kindle 1. The very nature of how I handle the device constantly puts the phone in silent mode. I wish there were a way to delete the silent option or force three long vibrates of the phone when it goes from vibrate to silent.
Oh the Jokes are Coming
I can hear my Windows Mobile and Blackberry friends talking about sound profiles. Android lacks a way to define profiles. I now recall making my silent profiles on all phones include the option to vibrate. I am not jumping off the Droid band wagon yet but I have to find a way to resolve this problem. Maybe an app that prevents silent mode. Who knows.
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