Show HN: Smart Silence – Remind your iPhone to stay quiet in quiet places
testflight.apple.comHi HN,
I built an iPhone app called *Smart Silence* after sitting in a quiet setting (a service, actually) where someone’s phone rang loudly and interrupted everything. It wasn’t intentional — just one of those forgetful moments. I started wondering: what if our phones could gently remind us to stay silent when it matters?
*Smart Silence* helps iPhone users do just that. It lets you:
- Mark places where silence is expected (like libraries, meetings, classes, or houses of worship) - Get a reminder when you enter, with an easy Shortcut to enable Do Not Disturb - Schedule quiet times (e.g. “Mondays 9–11am at this place”) - Share Silent Places with others — so your community, school, or workspace can use the same setup - Stay fully in control — no auto-silencing, and no location tracking outside of defined zones
It’s currently available via TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/47CJ31VK
I’d love feedback — especially around usability, edge cases, or features you’d expect. If you run or attend a place where silence matters, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This is build into iOS DND already. It can automatically activate based on location.
I apologise if I’m missing something, but isn’t this already achievable with a location-based Shortcut?
Yes, it is. There are so many tutorials but here is one simple and straight to the point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKzGThOFy1E
While shortcuts are cool, I think the vast majority of people never use them and don’t even know what they are. Normies want to download an app and let it ride.
> While shortcuts are cool, I think the vast majority of people never use them and don’t even know what they are. Normies
because the "codies" are not able to write accesible documentation. On which Apple developer website are those "shortcuts" documented ? Is there a link to those on an iPhone.
How do you mark and share locations with a shortcut? Setting up shortcut for one location is one thing, managing a bunch of locations is another thing.
Realistically how many locations do you have? On the upper end maybe 5? 6?
Shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes to set them all up.
You don’t even need a shortcut - iOS’s native focus modes can be triggered by location directly. It’s one of the configuration options that’s been there since they launched focus modes.
The app that could’ve been a blog post
Yes, and Dropbox could have been a handful of unix commands.
I don't think I would use an app for this, but as far as I can tell, it aims to crowdsource silent locations, something a shortcut couldn't realistically achieve.
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.
> 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.
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...
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.
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.
Is this a regional thing? I don't really hear phones ringing in the UK any more. They're almost always on silent by default.
Personally, my issue is alarms rather than ringing. Silent mode doesn't silence the alarms, and I forget to check them. It would be great if this would silence alarms
It doesn’t silence alarms because then people would sleep through it and be late for work. Probably there should be “silencable” and “non-silencable” alarms, though I’m sure people would mix them up and use the wrong one.
We really need AGI to solve that. ;)
I have no idea why the damn phone doesn't have a global silence slider. No Noise!
Yep. I had an alarm go off during a funeral last year, when my phone was on silent. There really needs to be an “I’m at a funeral, dammit” mode.
Maybe you could do what banks do and use silent alarms?
I’ve tried it, and then I miss the alarms
iOS doesn’t support batch deleting alarms either. ‘Siri set an alarm for 45 minutes’ leaves my alarm list littered with an inactive alarm I once set, have no future use for, but is annoying enough that I’ll never delete them all. Is there an alarm set to go off in the near future? Hold on, let me scroll through 50 pages of pointless noise.
iOS. It just works (tm).
Can Siri batch delete alarms based on the name?
"hey Siri, create an alarm and name it $X"
"hey Siri, delete all alarms named $X"
This actually works, except that upon “delete all $x alarms”, Siri asks back “do you want to delete all your alarms?”, but after confirming only deletes the $x alarms.
Still, it’s not very practical, as Siri often mishears alarm names, and also you want to use different names to know what each alarm is for.
Siri: delete all my alarms
Thanks, I wasn’t aware siri could delete alarms - this requires iirc a swipe and a tap for each alarm from the manual UI, that’s still not great for the non-voice user (alarms is the only thing I use Siri for)
It’s possible using a Shortcut: https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/a2h6bf/comment/k...
pierceday.metalabel.com/aphone
Hi everyone – I’m the creator of Smart Silence. Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback and questions — I really appreciate it. I wanted to respond to some of the points raised and share a bit about where the app is headed.
⸻
“Doesn’t iOS already support this?”
You’re right — iOS offers Focus Modes with location-based triggers and automation via Shortcuts. But in practice, these are underused because they’re not easy to configure or manage. Smart Silence builds on that by making the process simpler, more flexible, and community-oriented.
Here’s how it’s different: • Quick Silent Zone setup: Add any location (house of worship, library, classroom, etc.) and the app handles the rest — no need to mess with Focus Mode automations. • Silent Zone Sharing: You can share a Silent Zone with others, so groups (like schools or religious organizations) can all use the same settings. • Smart Reminders: It sends a prompt (or runs a Shortcut) when you enter/leave a Silent Zone — keeping you in control, while avoiding disruption. • Easy Reversion: When you leave a Silent Zone, it reminds you to turn sound back on, avoiding the classic “why am I missing calls?” issue.
⸻
New: Scheduled Silent Sessions
In addition to location-based detection, Smart Silence also supports scheduled quiet times in those locations.
You can set silent hours for things like: • Classes • Meetings • Services • Daily focus blocks (like 9–11 AM “deep work”)
This is especially helpful if you work or study in one place, but need silence at specific times.
⸻
Coming Soon: Focus Points System
One of the most exciting features I’m working on is Focus Points: • While Do Not Disturb is active in a Silent Zone, Smart Silence uses motion data to see if your phone stays still. • If you don’t pick it up or use it, you earn Focus Points. • These points contribute to daily or weekly focus scores, with streak tracking and possible rewards later on.
It’s a lightweight way to encourage discipline and reduce unnecessary phone use during important moments.
⸻
Not Just for Houses of Worship
The original inspiration came from watching someone’s phone go off during a quiet moment in a house of worship. They were clearly embarrassed, and it disrupted everyone else too. But this app isn’t just for religious settings — it works anywhere silence and focus are important: • Libraries • Classrooms • Meetings • Meditation groups • Study blocks • Movie theaters
⸻
*“Do people still need this?”*
Yes — many people still forget to silence their phones or get distracted by notifications. Smart Silence is about reducing friction and making it easy to be present, whether out of respect for others or to improve your own focus.
⸻
Thanks again for all the feedback. I’m continuing to improve the app and would love more input. Let me know what you’d want it to do — or if you think something could be done better.
– Gabe
Thanks for clarifying. I can see what you’re going for and why the iOS functionality isn’t enough. Some feedback that comes to my mind:
I imagine that there are three personas -
1. one who wants others’ phones to be silent
2. one who wants to silence their own phone
3. one who is indifferent
Type 1 is motivated to download the app and encourage others to do so, especially if they are in the administration of that place.
Type 2 might choose to manually silence their phone. There is a subset of type 2 that might constantly forget to silence their device. This subset might be motivated to download the app.
Type 3 is simply not motivated to download the app.
I’d suggest checking if this is really a need that people feel and will be motivated to download an app for, or a projection of one’s own preference of order and discipline that one wishes others to have.
I'd rather use a pencil and paper than be stuck using one of apple's operating systems
Hot take.
> your iPhone
This presupposes I have an iPhone. I don't.
Did you click on the comments section of a post just to nitpick at the title which clearly describes the purpose and OS limitations of another users’ pet project?