Android Lollipop behaves differently when it comes to volume and silence. When using the volume rocker, there is no native “pure silent” mode, instead the new lower level is vibrate. That’s because Lollipop introduced a new feature called “Do Not Disturb” which allows you to limit interruptions to priority ones. When used, a star icon shows in the status bar. What is considered a priority interruption is defined in Android’s Settings > Sound > Interruptions.

Here are 3 examples of settings you can use with Timeriffic and how they interact with Android Lollipop.

Example 1
– “ringer mode” changed to mute / “vibrate” unchanged / “ring volume” unchanged :
– Status bar displays a “star” icon (the new Do Not Disturb mode in L, aka “DND”).
– Volume rocker: volume displays shows the bell icon, volume at 1000% and Do Not Disturb mode set to “Priority”
– device enters Do Not Disturb mode specific to L in Priority mode.
– Tip: Go to settings > Sound & Notification > Interruptions. Then set Calls/Messages to not priority or keep them on but change the “from everyone” setting. You can also customize days & start/end times in there.
– receiving a text message: device does not vibrates, no audible ring (based on priority settings)
– receiving a phone call: device does not vibrates, no audible ring. (based on priority settings)

For users who have been asking for a whitelist mode in Timeriffic, this is the ideal setting. Set the Interruptions setting to allow Calls in priority mode and change “from everyone” to “starred contacts only”.

Example 2
– “ringer mode” unchanged / “vibrate” unchanged / “ring volume” set to 0% :
– Status bar displays a “vibrate” icon.
– Volume rocker: volume displays shows the vibrate icon, volume at 0% and Do Not Disturb mode set to “ALL” (e.g. accepts all incoming messages/calls)
– device enters silent with vibrate mode, which is the new default “mute” on L.
– receiving a text message: device vibrates, no audible ring.
– receiving a phone call: device vibrates, no audible ring.

Example 3
– “ringer” set to mute / “vibrate” set to no vibrate / “ring volume” set to 0%:
This is the “really really silent” mode, which is not properly supported in L. Timeriffic can set it but the Volume rocker change is a tad confused by it.
– Status bar displays a “star” icon, which means Do Not Disturb mode is engaged.
– Volume rocker: Since this mode is not supported natively by L, the Volume rocker display looks a bit confused. We have seen 2 behaviors:
– using volume rocker up: this unsets this mode and resets it to ring at low volume.
– using volume rocker down: this “locks” in this mode and the volume rocker display displays a greyed bell, no volume slider and Priority mode. Once you use the volume rocker down once, you can’t use the volume rocker up to change the volume but we found that if you press the “ALL” from Do Not Disturb mode it does reset it to the default behavior of L.
– receiving a text message: device does not vibrates, no audible ring (even for callers who are in the Priority mode in DND)
– receiving a phone call: device does not vibrates, no audible ring.

We would not recommend using example #3 because its behavior is unpredictable : if you press the volume up by mistake, it unsets the mode.

Instead we would recommend to use this the way it is expected by the OS. “Lollipop” is designed around the new DND feature so use it. It can be controlled as shown in Example #1 above: simply have a rule in Timeriffic to set the “ringer mode” to mute; optionally change the ring volume — that will set DND in Priority mode; then use Android’s new Settings > Sound > Interruptions to define what is a priority. In our case we disable all events / calls / messages, but some people might prefer to have a whitelist, which can be achieved by starring contacts.