Overview

Auto Ring 2.2
Androlib Page
Developer's Page
Price: Free (donations accepted)

You've seen it or heard it, "This should be built-in!". Well in the case of Auto Ring that is absolutely true. After you use this app you'll wonder why it isn't a setting on every cell phone made.

Auto Ring enables you to put your phone in vibrate or silent mode for that important meeting, but still get emergency calls and texts from people you designate.

Think of Auto Ring as a way to set everyone in your contact list, except a few, to go to voice mail.

How it works

Auto Ring lets you white list contacts and phone numbers you want to ring while silencing everyone else. With Auto Ring enabled and your phone in vibrate or silent mode you choose who can break into your important meeting or interrupt your sleep.

White list

This is the white list menu (with my entires removed)

You can choose to white list everyone, a single contact, a group of contacts, or unknown numbers.

You can add phone numbers not in your contact list. This is handy for when you are waiting for a call from a number you don't need or want to add to your contacts.

Hitting the pick button lets you choose a contact already on the phone.

Missed Mode

You probably wondered why there is an option to put 'everyone' in your white list. Missed mode is why this setting makes sense.

With missed mode turned on there are additional settings for the number of times a call is missed during a certain period of time.

In order for the phone to ring the caller that is in your white-list has to call once more than the number you set for misses within the time frame you set.

If you have a restrictive white list you can set the number of misses low and the time longer. If you have a permissive white list (remember that "everyone" setting?) you can set the number of misses higher.

With the settings displayed above a caller in the white list would ring through if they called twice in five minutes. So two calls in a short period of time will ring and a single call won't.

Auto Enable

If you have Auto Enable checked Auto Ring activates whenever you put your phone on vibrate or silent. A notice pops up on the screen to remind you that Auto Ring is active. If you only have the auto enable setting checked at this point if you view settings both enable and auto enable are checked. Putting your phones ringer bcak into normal mode does not turn off Auto Ring and the notice is not popped up the next time you go into silent or vibrate mode. You can leave the settings page open and observe this behavior by using the volume rocker to go into and out of vibrate/silent mode.

The pop-up should display every time you put your phone in vibrate or silent mode. At least there should be a setting to turn the notice on.

The only visible difference I could see between enable and auto enable was the notice pop up. There is probably more going on in the background.

Force Ring

Some phones may not let Auto Ring change the ringer mode without this setting. It is not needed on the Backflip.

What's Missing

Missed call settings on a per contact or per group basis. For instance Family gets right through regardless of silent or vibrate and work has to call three times.

Separate white lists for vibrate/silent. This way Family could ring in either mode and work would only ring in vibrate.

A widget to toggle Auto Ring on/off. Sometimes you really don't want to be disturbed.

Backflip Quirks

Like many apps when you pick from your list of contacts you may see multiple entries with the same number. This is the result of Motoblur on the Backflip and it's multiple contacts lists (Motoblur, Google, Facebook, etc.).

Summary

The more contacts you have the more likely it is that you will get a call when you don't want one or it is inappropriate. If you turn your phone to silent you risk missing emergency or important calls. Auto Ring provides a solution for this dilemma. Auto Ring lets you choose who can interrupt you before they do.

This is an excellent app that gives you piece of mind in situations where you have to be available for certain calls, but need to be left alone otherwise.

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