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sprucemoose

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 26, 2015
66
34
Is it just me, or is the watch better suited to being silent at all times?

At first, I only disabled sound alerts for messages. It seemed at odds with one of the primary benefits of the watch – to discreetly receive notifications with haptic feedback. With the default setting, I'd just get the same disruptive dings as I did with my iPhone and would have to remember to mute my watch before going into meetings or quiet places. It seemed weird that this was the default setting.

Next, I used directions on the watch, and I again found the sound counterproductive. With sound on, I had trouble distinguishing the difference between left and right haptics, and I'd need to look at the watch for confirmation. The accompanying sound effect (although different for each type of turn) made it difficult to perceive the tap pattern and caused momentary confusion while driving. Once I muted the watch, my brain was able to focus on the taps and it became very easy to distinguish between the left and right patterns.

This got me thinking - why have any sound effects enabled on the watch at all? Unless you're someone who is not sensitive enough to feel the taps, are there any scenarios you can think of where sound actually adds to the experience? Do you feel Apple made the right choices with the default settings?
 

BlueMoon63

macrumors 68020
Mar 30, 2015
2,055
959
Always off for me as is my watch, and for the first time ever, I never miss a call or text and that makes my wife and kids very happy. I can wonder 7 floors at the office without my phone and never miss a call or text. Love it. Siri works perfectly for my no accent voice and deeper tone so I use that all the time with 99% accuracy.

Will never have my watch off of silent and the same has been true for my phone for over two months.
 

wchigo

macrumors 6502
Apr 6, 2015
467
218
So far I've never had a need to keep sounds on for the Watch. I started off with it on since it was the default but after a few days I switched it off and haven't gone back since.
 
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flur

macrumors 68020
Nov 12, 2012
2,391
1,174
Always silent mode for me. But then I keep my phone on vibrate-only too.
 
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sprucemoose

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 26, 2015
66
34
Thanks for the replies so far. Glad to know I'm not the only one. I do question Apple's default settings, which most users don't change. Why even have the Taptic Engine to begin with if everything is going to make a sound?
 

jasonklee

Suspended
Dec 7, 2007
623
746
I tend to agree. I found it too awkward to have dings and beeps emanating from the watch. If I'm with guests especially at a dinner table it feels more intrusive than a phone, in a more in-your-face sort of way. Maybe it has something to do with it really being an intimate device—a phone dinging on a table is sort of like a car alarm going off in the street.

I tend to use most products at their default settings so I can experience them the way they were intended but after the first few notifications I thought that Apple should've made sounds off by default.
 

aberrero

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2010
857
249
Both my phone and watch are always on silent. Having electronics that beep is incredibly obnoxious. Sitting next to someone texting on an Android phone on a bus is worse than sitting in front of a crying baby.
 
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DarthT

macrumors newbie
Jul 14, 2015
6
2
Sounds off for me too - only haptic notifications. No notifications for emails.

Would be nice to enable sounds for individual apps - e.g. workout - sometimes I miss notifications while biking and running.
 
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sprucemoose

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 26, 2015
66
34
Sounds off for me too - only haptic notifications. No notifications for emails.

Would be nice to enable sounds for individual apps - e.g. workout - sometimes I miss notifications while biking and running.

Exactly. It almost feels like a hack to put the watch in Silent Mode, because that's not exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. I would still like some UI sounds. For example, if I'm putting the watch on the charger, I'd like to hear the charge chime.

Feels like sound settings need to be more granular, or maybe for there to be a “Silence Notifications” setting.
 

danmart

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2015
1,576
1,074
Lancs, UK
I'm another who had the watch on mute from day 1. Seems like the natural choice for me - one of my reasons for buying it was to have totally silent notifications.

I have the volume on max but then turn on mute. How do other people have their watch set up? I did it that way as I presume the volume setting still counts for alarms when you aren't wearing the watch, and I intend to use the watch when I need an alarm clock in the morning (which isn't every day as my wife gets up for work before I do).
 

coffeemadmanUK

macrumors 6502a
Jan 30, 2012
575
212
United Kingdom
Silent for me all the time. My partner has his with sound and it is more intrusive than a phone sound, given that it's always close to other people. Very odd! I think the Watch suits silent mode much more.
 

Rok73

macrumors 65816
Apr 21, 2015
1,161
518
Planet Earth
Since I've got my watch on May 13 (yes, I remember that day exactly) both my phone and the watch are in silent mode. Tapping on the wrist is enough, it's awesome. No more annoying tones.

@danmart I do exactly the same. It's correct that the volume has influence on the alarm clock volume when the watch is muted.
 

Roller

macrumors 68030
Jun 25, 2003
2,956
2,171
Mine's on silent all the time, as is my iPhone at work. I get annoyed at meetings when other phones are constantly beeping, chiming, and chirping. In fact, I don't like it when phones on vibrate are placed on the table, which amplifies the sound.
 

friedmud

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2008
1,415
1,265
I keep my phone silent... but surprisingly I like the sound from my watch. I tried my watch on silent mode when I first got it, but I just found that I would miss things. Not that I couldn't feel the haptic, but that it wasn't enough of a cue for me. To me, the sound works _with_ the haptic feedback... together they feel right.

At this point I'm very used to the sounds and I know what they all mean... and often I don't even need to look at the Watch when it notifies me of something because between the haptic feeling and the sound it's enough information to know what the notification is for. For instance, the sounds and taps it makes while doing driving directions are very useful.
 
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PilotC150

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2015
194
270
It was on silent from nearly the first minute I had it turned on. I thought the whole point was to get notifications discretely, so I thought it was strange to have audio notifications to begin with. It would be horribly annoying at work if it dinged every time a notification came in.
 

Warbrain

macrumors 603
Jun 28, 2004
5,702
293
Chicago, IL
Mine's on silent all the time, as is my iPhone at work. I get annoyed at meetings when other phones are constantly beeping, chiming, and chirping. In fact, I don't like it when phones on vibrate are placed on the table, which amplifies the sound.

My favorite feature of iOS 9 (maybe it's a bug? I hope not) is that I can have my phone on silent with vibrate off, plug in my phone and it doesn't vibrate twice.
 

iPhysicist

macrumors 65816
Nov 9, 2009
1,343
1,004
Dresden
Silent for me as well. The watch and the phone since the time I started using one or the the other. I don't like my tools to emit noise of any sort. Mac is silent as well but that's a given at work :) The haptic feedback is strong enough to not miss calls anymore so my phone can now sit in my pocket or backpack.
 

jmh286

macrumors member
Apr 22, 2015
53
21
Since the day I got my watch, I have had both my phone and watch on silent....it's nice to not have to remember to silence my phone before meetings and movies.
 
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