There’s been lots of discussion about how the iPhone’s mute switch should behave. It all spurred from a NY Times piece about someone’s iPhone marimba ring interrupting a symphony performance.

John Gruber examines this and concludes that Apple’s current behaviour is correct:

I think the current behavior of the iPhone mute switch is correct. You can’t design around every single edge case, and a new iPhone user who makes the reasonable but mistaken assumption that the mute switch silences everything, with an alarm set that he wasn’t aware of, and who is sitting in the front row of the New York Philharmonic when the accidental alarm goes off, is a pretty good example of an edge case.

Whereas if the mute switch silenced everything, there’d be thousands of people oversleeping every single day because they went to bed the night before unaware that the phone was still in silent mode.

Andy Ihnatko then weighed in on the discussion with the philosophy that the mute switch should mute everything, no matter what app, what context, etc. He suggests that it’s essentially up to the user to be aware of this and if their alarm doesn’t go off because they forgot to un-mute their phone, that’s their mistake.

If screwups are inevitable, then the iPhone should choose to screw up in a way where the user feels like he understands what went wrong, takes responsibility for that mistake, and knows how to avoid repeating it. I shouldn’t be forced to consult a little laminated wallet card every time I slide a two-state “Mute” switch, to remind myself of all of the iPhone’s independent exceptions to the concept of “silence.” I can’t review all pending alerts and notifications to anticipate future problems.

No. I should slide the switch to “Mute,” and then the phone goes SILENT. If I miss an appointment because I did that, it’s completely on me. If my phone disrupts a performance despite the fact that I took clear and deliberate action to prevent that from happening…that’s the result of sloppy design. Or arrogant design, which is harder to forgive.

I tend to agree with Gruber, for the same reasons Dr. Richard Gaywood mentions:

Consider this scenario: the iPhone mute switch does, as Ihnatko wants, silence everything. I want to use it as an alarm clock with the phone on charge on my bedside table (a not-uncommon desire, I believe). I’ve done this with every cell phone I’ve had, back to 2000 or so.

So: if Ihnatko has his way, I cannot mute the phone or my alarm will not sound. I am forced to leave the phone’s sound on and be woken up multiple times a night by beeps and gurgles as I receive Twitter messages or spam emails and what have you. That’s clearly not what I want, and as it’s not how any cell phone I’ve ever used has behaved, it’s also not what I expect.

I’d say Apple has it just right in the current implementation.

BUT, there is one other idea; Profiles for iPhone.

Remember those old Nokia phones that had “ringtone profiles”?

For those of you that don’t remember, it was that phone you played Snake on (which is still better than any iPhone game I’ve ever played).

Profiles were great. They were a simple way to setup “blueprints” for various settings on your cellphone, so that the phone would behave a certain way when (and where) you wanted it to.

In order for some to realize the benefits of this, I’ve noted a few scenarios where Profiles would come in handy.

You could set one up called “Work” that would also have silent keytones, but wouldn’t even vibrate (which can be very disruptive in an enclosed meeting room).

You could setup a Profile for your phone called “Movie”. Your phone would only vibrate when it rings, and the keys would be silent.

You’d set one up called “Party” that would blow all the sounds and whistles. You’d be able to hear your phone ringing over the crowd on full volume (or feel the vibration if that fails), and you’d get the audible feedback when pressing buttons – assurance you may need after a few drinks.

You’d have another Profile called “Bedtime” that would have silent keynotes, and the ringtone volume turned way down. Perhaps you’d also choose a more soothing ringtone in place of your classic Old Phone or Marimba ringtone. That way you can hear your phone ringing in case an important call comes through, but you won’t be shell-shocked during your precious sleep. And of course you wouldn’t have to hear your Twitter push-notifications go off. Vibrate would also be off, because really, what’s more annoying than your phone sliding off your night table as you desperately try to grab it while your eyes are covered in morning goop.

These are the settings Nokia offered on the 3310 back in the day:

*Taken from Nokia’s manual for the 3310 handset

• Ringing tone: Sets the ringing tone for voice calls.
• Ringing volume: Sets the volume level for the ringing and message alert tones.
• Incoming call alert: Defines how the phone notifies you of incoming voice calls.
• Message alert tone: Sets the call alert for text messages.
• Keypad tones: Sets the volume level for keypad tones.
• Warning tones: Sets the phone to sound a warning tone, for example when the battery is running out of power.
• Vibrating alert: Sets the phone to vibrate when you receive a voice call or a text message.
• Screen saver: Sets the picture that is displayed in standby mode after a selected period of time (called ’timeout’).

So why doesn’t iPhone have Profiles? Probably because it over complicates the user experience.  

I can definitely see the complexity a profile feature would bring, but I can also see the benefits. In either case, constantly having to adjust my ringer volume and toggle the mute switch on/off can prove to be a bit annoying.

Imagine Profiles with location-based settings.

Your iPhone would know when you’re home, when you’re in the office, or when you’re at work. You’d be able to specify Profiles by location, time, or manually.

It could even do things beyond volume settings – it could turn your passcode lock on when you leave your home, or turn your screen brightness down in the morning so your eyes don’t bleed when you look at the screen when you first wakeup.

In writing this post it’s evident why it’s not there – it’s just too complicated. It wouldn’t have to be something enabled (and pushed to the user to setup) by default, or something heavily marketed by Apple. 

I’d be interested in hearing other people’s opinions on this, so feel free to get in touch with your thoughts.