Weekly poll results: the ringer is off all the time for many, others switch manually

Last week, we asked you whether you keep your phone ringer on and, if you do, what ringtone do you use. As we suspected, the “ringer on all the time” option was the less common choice, but it’s still how a quarter of voters use their phone daily.

Then there is a nearly dead-even split between those who keep their phones on vibrate all the time and those who switch manually. Of the latter, some are lucky enough to still have a physical switch, but there will be fewer and fewer such phones as time goes by.

Whether by switch or by using the settings, people who toggle their ringers based on where they are and what they are doing tend to enable it when outside or in otherwise noisy environments.

Interestingly, quite a few people reported that they use some sort of automation to change the ringer profile, e.g. putting the phone on silent at night. Alternatively, some rely on smartwatches/bands for notifications, but those make up less than 10% of voters.

Reading through the comments, we saw quite a few people complaining that the vibration on their phones is weak – we suspect that more people would go the “vibrate only” route if vibration motors get a boost in power.

Among people whose phones ring for incoming calls and messages, nearly half use a custom ringtone. Nearly. Usually, it’s either a song they like or a particular tone from an old phone. The former change the song often enough, the latter have found the perfect ringtone and are sticking to it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Still, the majority of people use a ringtone that was included by the manufacturer – it’s a 3:2 split between those who listen to the preloaded ringtones and pick one and those who never change the setting and just use the default ringtone.