Failsafe way to silence ringer depending on location

[Johnny Cakes]

My job takes me to the courthouse several times a week. If you forget to silence your ringer and the phone rings, the judge takes the phone and you have to travel back to the courthouse at the end of the day to recover it. The judge also gets really really mad and gives lots of grief. So I need a failsafe way to automatically turn off the ringer while in the courthouse.

I read this thread http://androidforums.com/htc-hero/8743-set-profile-gps-location.html about a program named Locale, but it indicated that if the phone loses the GPS signal, Locale will automatically revert the phone to the default profile or some other profile.

I come from a Symbian phone where the phone would "learn" every cell tower ID in a given area and then set the phone's profile upon getting a signal from one of those towers. The profile would stick, regardless of losing the signal, unless and until it got a signal from a different tower which was not on the list it had "learned" from the location area. That is failsafe.

Is there anything for an Android based phone which will silence the ring on a failsafe basis?

 

[gnur]

I read this thread http://androidforums.com/htc-hero/8743-set-profile-gps-location.html about a program named Locale, but it indicated that if the phone loses the GPS signal, Locale will automatically revert the phone to the default profile or some other profile.

Don`t think that actually happens. I've been using locale for quite some time and the location services uses current or last known GPS lcoation.
So if you get no GPS signal, it uses the last known location. It can also determine location bases on cell towers, so I think locale is the way to go.

//edit: also, if there is any wifi network in the courhouse, you can use that to silence your phone as well.

 

[chris76]

Don`t think that actually happens. I've been using locale for quite some time and the location services uses current or last known GPS lcoation.
So if you get no GPS signal, it uses the last known location. It can also determine location bases on cell towers, so I think locale is the way to go.

//edit: also, if there is any wifi network in the courhouse, you can use that to silence your phone as well.

I also use Locale and it works as expected. A perfect implementation and a great product.

 

[mustang5o]

I plan to start using Locale more but I had one issue with it. I thought I'd try setting it so as I arrived at someones house it would send a txt saying "I'm here" but it doesn't quite work right. It continues to send the txt while I'm there. It seems that maybe there should be a setting that says run once for something like SMS, am I missing something? This isn't going to be my actual use of the SMS plug in but just how I was testing it. In real use it would be for something more important but I still want it to only send one txt when the location is met.

Thanks for any help

 

[Headsong]

Related enough to not be a hijack, but anyone know if the Moto 'droids will have a silence button on the phone? Gotten used to that on the Palm and it's so useful.

 

[zurloid]

LocationBot can turn off the volume according to location. It will use the GPS if this is switched on, otherwise it will use the cell/wireless networks around you. This is less accurate obviously, but you can configure the "distance threshold" (i.e. the "zone" in which you wish to switch off the volume, and also configure the app to ignore any location readings that exceed a defined level of accuracy. For example, you could configure the app to only update the phone if the accuracy can be established to within a 200 meter range and ignore location readings that are over this threshold.

LocationBot

 

[sitlet]

Cant you just turn the phone off? I mean, it's not like you can check your email or texts while in the courtroom anyway, so just turn it off. No need to worry about if it will go off or not, and no need to worry about getting your phone taken away.

 

[UncleMike]

Tasker could do this too - identifying your location by GPS (fine), Network (coarse), or proximity to Wifi networks. To account for accidentally pressing the volume rocker you might want to change the ringtone to silent.

Recent circumstances had me visiting a hospital frequently, and I found that single Wifi SSID was available throughout the building. I had my phone set to vibrate whenever this SSID was visible.

You can download Tasker from the Market (with inherent 24-hour refund policy), or download/install it off-Market with a 14-day trial here:

Tasker for Android

With any of these apps, the frequency of checking your location needs to be balanced against your need for battery life. What I did with Tasker is combine the Network location with the Wifi proximity to create a low-power-consumption profile - it only checks for the Wifi signal if I'm within a mile or two of the hospital.

 

[pavirotten]

I loved having Locale on my phone when it was free, but I decided that $9.99 was a little much to have to pay for the app.

 

[cannadroid6203]

Related enough to not be a hijack, but anyone know if the Moto 'droids will have a silence button on the phone? Gotten used to that on the Palm and it's so useful.

The volume rocker will silence active ring tones when pressed...

 

[vinay619]

I chcecked out all the apps that silence your phone based on your location.
Most of them are not so easy to use and almost all of them drain your battery more than usual.
So, I have developed an app for silencing your phone based on your current location, it uses Geofences so it consumes a minimum amount of power and it has a simple a clean interface.

You can try it for free for 7 days
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sandscapeapps.smartsilence.lite

 

[divinebovine]

Necrothread, eh?

Llama is free, well-known, well-reviewed, doesn't require GPS, and does work as requested.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kebab.Llama
The only downside is that it will silence your ringer when you hit the same cell tower, long before you actually enter the courthouse.

 

[chanchan05]

Necrothread, eh?

Llama is free, well-known, well-reviewed, doesn't require GPS, and does work as requested.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kebab.Llama
The only downside is that it will silence your ringer when you hit the same cell tower, long before you actually enter the courthouse.

I think, it will have to be a set of towers, not just one, if they're available.

 

[divinebovine]

I think, it will have to be a set of towers, not just one, if they're available.

Yup. How Llama works is when you are in an area that you want to define, you set it to train and tell it how long you expect to be there. For that amount of time, whatever towers it picks up will be added to that area.

I guess as conditions and towers change, if you don't pay attention (check status before entering courtroom) you could end up with an unwanted ring.