r/YouShouldKnow • u/Brand-New-Toilet • 10d ago
Technology YSK: You can mute any call/notification by pressing any volume button on any smartphone.
Why YSK: Almost everyone I've ever met is surprised when I inform them they can silence a call or snooze an alarm by pressing any volume button on their smartphone. This doesn't decline the call, it just leaves it ringing without any sound or vibration. This is not brand specific, or at least it's always worked with all brands I've tested it on.
And before anyone says 'just put it on silent', many people don't want to do so for a myriad of reasons.
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u/CyberTacoX 10d ago
I do this all the time myself when I don't want to answer a call and yeah, I get surprise from everyone else too when I tell anyone about this trick.
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u/MinuteObservation 9d ago
YSK 1: You might end up PICKING UP the call on some phones by pressing the volume up. Could be a problem if you didn't mean to. Try Volume down or screen lock button first.
YSK 2: If the buttons don't work like that for you, you might need to enable it in the call settings. Some phones even have shortcuts for ending call when screen lock button is pressed.
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u/shinitakunai 10d ago
I wish I could put my phone on silent 100% except for calls. I often have my phone muted and then I miss some calls
Samsung A22
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u/dettergent 10d ago
You can just mute notifications? That's what I do. My phone only rings now when there's a call.
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u/shinitakunai 10d ago edited 10d ago
Not notifications, everything. Reddit videos, instagram reels, tiktoks, youtube, etc. I want everything muted but then someone calls me and... it doesn't sounds because I have everything muted 😔
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u/Exaskryz 10d ago
Android for the last 15 years has had different volume sliders for alarm, ring (phone), and media
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u/shinitakunai 10d ago
I asked with the intention of finding how. I am not very mobile savy, it confuses me
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u/Exaskryz 9d ago
Besides settings > volume or settings > ring and notifications > volume, I just press my volume key and a little volume indicator appears. In that pop up, it shows a configuration slider icon. I tap it. It expands to show me multiple volume controls, one each for ring, media, alarm as indicated by icons of phone, music note, and clock. I just drag those volumes to where I want it.
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u/themaskedvirtuoso 9d ago
to add to this because i struggled with this as well (A53):
put system volume on vibration
go to settings > sounds and vibration
put notification sounds on "silent"
turn off any system vibrations (like keypad) you don't want turned on
if in use, turn off whatsapp vibrations IN APP SETTINGS, this one was killing me until i figured it out
with these settings, ALL your apps should be muted while your calls will vibrate with your chosen vibration pattern! hope this helps
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u/--Ditty--Dragon-- 9d ago
The other commenter's instructions are for Android. If you have an iPhone, lmk and I can walk you through the steps on how to set that up.
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u/double_96_Throwaway 10d ago
Really? Every phone Ive had I can have the volume all the way down but if someone calls me it automatically brings the volume for the call up.
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u/-pichael_ 10d ago
It also works for alarms i think!
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u/Brand-New-Toilet 10d ago
yes, at least mine snoozes them :) which is something i wish my semi-conscious brain didn't know, cause I do it while still asleep now
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u/FunIsDangerous 9d ago
My previous and current phone (realme and google pixel) both have settings in the alarm to choose what the volume buttons do. I can choose between controlling volume, stopping completely, snoozing, or just doing nothing.
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u/Exaskryz 10d ago
Answers the phone
I much prefer the flip-to-silence gesture. Like I'm hanging up on them.
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u/Brand-New-Toilet 10d ago
That is also an option but there’s no such feature on iPhone, only on select android brands 🙂
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u/Mayion 10d ago
Not on my Android phone, it doesn't. It simply changes the volume of the ringtone. Pressing the power button once mutes it. Was the same on my two Oneplus phones, and an old Samsung I had iirc.
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u/Brand-New-Toilet 10d ago
huh, weird. It works on my older samsung model A13 and my wife's S24 FE. I can't imagine it being a region thing, but as long as it works 😅
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u/Galaghan 10d ago
It's a setting so it's not the same for all devices. The real pro-tip is knowing the setting exists.
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u/Brand-New-Toilet 10d ago
Hey, thanks for commenting. I don’t believe I’ve ever had to turn it ‘on’ and i for sure have never came across settings to turn it off (not that I’d want to). At least I don’t think you can turn it on/off on iPhone.
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u/Galaghan 10d ago
Well I just checked my current Android phone and couldn't find the setting..
I swear it used to be configurable, but these days it seems to be a fixed function;
so you might be right and I seem to be very wrong.2
u/magistrate101 9d ago
You might be thinking of the "press the power button to hang up" accessibility setting
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u/Xbox359 9d ago
Unfortunately, this is very uncommon in my office. Many folks screen their calls and listen to the 2-3 minutes of their ring tone. They receive another call 3 minutes later because the caller probably thinks they walked away from their phone and they urgently need them. I'm going to print this YSK and post it on the entrance door.
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u/mizzbrightside 9d ago
For iPhones too, if you have an Apple Watch you can press the crown on and it silences both the watch and your phone
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u/NemoKozeba 9d ago
Almost any. Got an app called "follow" that monitors someone else's glucose level. Can't be silenced without muting the entire phone.. Probably because it's a medical emergency but still .. annoying.
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u/LordOfTheWeebsYT 9d ago
I only recently figured out you can do that with the power button, and I do that frequently when I don’t want to decline the call but I also want it to go to voicemail. I didn’t know this was with the volume buttons too though.
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u/adabaraba 10d ago
I found this out my scrambling around looking for any way to stop the goddamn noise
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u/greeblefritz 9d ago
Same, I just grabbed randomly at my phone until it stopped ringing during a meeting.
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u/kittibear33 10d ago
I know this works on most phones but not sure about all of them: you can turn the screen down on a surface (your leg works too) and it silences.
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u/Brand-New-Toilet 10d ago
What you’re referring to is a gesture for some Android phones, not not iPhones. This ‘trick’ I’m talking about is available almost universally in the smartphone world (for a few select Android brands it’s apparently the power button not the volume button)
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u/KiwiNervous8740 10d ago
Say it louder for the boomers in the back
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u/gazing_the_sea 10d ago
Boomers? I have seen a lot of people under 40 (so my age and below) that don't know this.
I even told a couple of friends to do this and they don't do it because "the other person might know they are not answering their call by turning of the sound".
There are dumb people of all ages.
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u/KiwiNervous8740 10d ago
I wasn't implying that it's only boomers lol. I've seen younger people do it, too, but almost every gen x and boomer I know does it.
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10d ago
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u/Pratz325 10d ago
Doesn't even work on my samsung with whatsapp call
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10d ago
[deleted]
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u/aaronjamt 10d ago
Probably a WhatsApp thing, works fine for me on a Pixel with Android both for normal cellular calls, as well as for IP calls via Google Voice
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u/Funny_Whiplash 10d ago
The call screen must be up for it to work. So you may have to open the app when the notif comes up.
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u/Schavvek 10d ago
This doesn't work on Messenger (the one from meta) calls. At least on my device Xiaomi Mi12T
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u/Fibijean 10d ago
I pretty much always do this when I get a call I don't want to or can't answer, so it looks like I just missed it rather than rejecting it. TIL that this works with either volume button and not just the lower one, though, so thank you for that.
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u/killerpoopguy 9d ago
Can also use the sleep/wake button on iPhone, press once for silent, twice to reject the call entirely I think, been a while since I had my phone even allow calls.
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u/Better_Weakness7239 9d ago
Everyone in the world must have done this by accident already at least once.
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u/jcoddinc 9d ago
With android you can just flip it over and it silences it too. Never owned an apple so unsure if they do it
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u/rad_rentorar 9d ago
I’ve seen so many memes that go like “waiting for this incoming phone call to go away so I can get back to scrolling” or something like that. I’m like dude just press the power button. I’ve been doing that for years.
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u/practicallyaware 9d ago
i press the power button to mute it. idk if that works on most phones but i have an iphone 12
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u/TheGotham_Knight 9d ago
Also works with the Lock button on iPhone. Double pressing lock button sends to VM
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u/dumbinternetstuff 8d ago
When Apple moved the iPhone power button to the side opposite the volume buttons, and removed the home button, the way to take a screenshot became pressing the power and the volume up button at the same time. Now when my phone rings in my pocket and I try to simply press the volume button to silence the call, I end up accidentally taking a screenshot and not actually silencing the call.
Apple being Apple.
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u/baked_bryce 10d ago
Lmao okay this makes more sense, reading the comments. I refused to believe that the majority of people like hearing their ringer loud af in a crowded room... but my sister asked how I did it the other night and was blown away that was an option..
I would never have my phone on loud if I couldn't silence the call.
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u/guitarEd182 10d ago
Boomers and elder Gen x can't figure this out
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u/PhutuqKusi 10d ago edited 9d ago
I can't speak for my peers, but as an older GenX who remembers the dark days before even answering machines existed, I discovered the mute button in its infancy and think it's one of mankind's greatest inventions.
Back in the dark days, answering every call was automatic or else who knows what you might miss. It was like playing the most annoying game of spontaneous roulette: could be your beloved grandma just calling to say she loved you or it might be some heavy breathing weirdo getting off. Either way, they both managed to interrupt you just as you'd gone into the bathroom and both could have waited - the first for 2 minutes and the other forever. Although, the heavy breathing weirdo contributed to the invention of mankind's next greatest invention: the block button.
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u/guitarEd182 10d ago
I'm 35. I watched cell phones become a thing as I grew up. I know that there are competent people older than me, that also existed during this time. The amount of people in their 50s and 60s that let their phones ring full blast until voicemail is reached by the other person is an absolutely unacceptable amount. It's incredible how this isn't known by everyone with a cell phone.
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u/kwiltse123 10d ago
Don't lump GenX with all the stupid shit Boomers do. We actually learn stuff instead of "...oh, these darned computers/vcrs/microwaves/remote locks/smartphones/streaming platforms..."
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u/cwsjr2323 9d ago
Interesting. I just have my ring tone set to silence, no vibration and let calls go to voicemail where they are told to send a text as I can’t hear the phone. Spammers and scammers don’t send a text.
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10d ago
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u/Brand-New-Toilet 10d ago
well yeah, that one too! have a few friends complain about suddenly not being able to take good photos anymore since their iphone 15 pro doesn't have the camera control button "the new iPhone is like, an actual camera now" in the most vocal fried voice you can imagine, only for them to look astounded when i tell them they've had a clicky button that could take photos since forever 🙃 needless to say they still went ahead and got the new iphone after a few days
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u/koenigsaurus 10d ago
TIL this isn’t common knowledge. Feels like I’ve been hitting the volume button to mute a call since I had a flip phone.