Show HN: Smart Silence – Remind your iPhone to stay quiet in quiet places
33 comments
·May 28, 2025matricaria
This is build into iOS DND already. It can automatically activate based on location.
russelldjimmy
I apologise if I’m missing something, but isn’t this already achievable with a location-based Shortcut?
Brajeshwar
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
ianburrell
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.
happyopossum
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.
xprn
The app that could’ve been a blog post
wingerlang
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.
neepi
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.
nytesky
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.
bigiain
> 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.
staindk
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).
copperx
Where do you set these rules?
layer8
On iOS one could use an automation to automatically turn off silent mode every morning or so.
mike_d
Because we can't trust people to not be shitheads.
47282847
Without assistance from the location, one could build this based on location and openstreetmap data, for types of buildings.
nico
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
layer8
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. ;)
sitkack
I have no idea why the damn phone doesn't have a global silence slider. No Noise!
ksenzee
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.
null
anArbitraryOne
Maybe you could do what banks do and use silent alarms?
nico
I’ve tried it, and then I miss the alarms
hsbauauvhabzb
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).
umbra07
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"
layer8
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.
chgs
Siri: delete all my alarms
hsbauauvhabzb
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)
anArbitraryOne
I'd rather use a pencil and paper than be stuck using one of apple's operating systems
throwaway314155
Hot take.
kurtis_reed
> your iPhone
This presupposes I have an iPhone. I don't.
hsbauauvhabzb
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?
Hi 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.