Jan Shim

Ever since I upgraded to Jelly Bean, I have found Blocking Mode to be useful in a number of ways especially turning off all notifications, calls and even SMS when you're asleep. It's a great way to conserve battery overnight when you need the phone least. I'm a professional photographer and there's no such thing as an urgent last minute photo shoot that I need to drag myself out of bed for. Family emergency exceptions are settable (see bottom of screen shot). Source: Shimworld

motoracer1486

Looks like a great feature. Thanks for sharing!

sherlock5545

Yeah, it's a great feature, I use it a lot as well. They did a great work implementing it, though they should have implemented it with ICS as well, it would have saved me a few times before :P

clitrenta

Apparently none of you people have ever had family emergencies because it has been my experience that everything bad always happens in the middle of the night and they don't always come from numbers you know, in fact almost never. I prefer not to risk that just to prolong my battery. Besides, why wouldn't you just plug your phone in when you're sleeping? It is a nice feature though for those who still want to use it.

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Last edited by clitrenta; October 18th, 2012 at 10:56 AM.

BynoUK

If I wished to cut off all contact I'd just use good old airplane mode.

Although I have actually used the blocking feature once.

okc_smoker

It appears they took this out of CM10. Too bad...

Brian706

I just leave my phone plugged in at night. Then I always start the day with a full charge...

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sherlock5545

Well, I don't use it to "block" incoming calls, but just to block notifications and LED. My phone is always plugged to the main overnight.

SUroot

You could set them as "Allowed contacts" as per the screenshot.

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SUroot

I use Tasker to turn off my audio. Light Manager does my LED but this looks good for LED. The only issue is Light Manager lets me change the colour on a per app basis.

Jan Shim

For family emergencies they call the house which is more effective (because it's a lot louder to wake everyone up). I do not sleep with the cell phone next to me or in the same room so draining battery overnight serves no real purpose in my case. But when I travel abroad for overnight work (rarely), it's as simple as disabling Blocking Mode.

Jan Shim

I have added my family contacts to this but it's kinda useless because I do not sleep with the phone in the room. I think this stems from the years of much publicised ill effects of having electronic items in the vicinity. In the case of en emergency, family members are expected to call the house.

But I imagine the combination of settings is great for users in an office environment when you need to quickly tone down the phone's sometimes hyperactive notifications (social, email, and what not) during a meeting.

nafanny29

One problem I have had with blocking mode is that allowed contacts were getting blocked.

I found the cause were contacts that had several "links". I had to edit the contacts and un-link everything and add the data manually, then it let them through the "block"

SUroot

My main issue is if I have it on all the time, I have a persistent notification, even if its not within the time I want it to be active. So I have to manually turn it on and off.

sherlock5545

That's the same issue I have as well, I wish we could disable the notification icon, at least outside the time it should be active.

SUroot

Yes. I mean, it would make sense, come the pre-determined hours arrival, that the notification is active, but not without.

pllasma

Stupid question. . but where is this blocking feature? I cannot find it on my newly JB updated Galaxy S3?

Pookeysgirl

In Settings, just underneath Home Screen Mode

valorian

What carrier are you with? I do not have this on my Verizon phone.

Attached Images

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Last edited by valorian; December 18th, 2012 at 04:52 PM.

Ron H

Same here; it looks like Verizon made the decision that we didn't need it.

nytmare

There's another thread on here about this, but Verizon did disable/hide this feature. However, if you download an app from the Play Store called Quickshortcutmaker, you can create a shortcut that points to the feature. And... you don't have to be rooted to get it to work.

I'm on Verizon and have created a shortcut to give me access to Blocking Mode. It works well. My only gripe with it so far is that it leaves an icon on the status bar that I'd rather not see. I've not found a way to get rid of it as Blocking Mode doesn't seem to have the option of not displaying it.

Doit2it

Some launchers allow shortcuts also. I have Apex launcher on my Verizon S3 and all you have to do is:

Longpress on a blank area / Shortcuts / Activities / Settings / Blocking Mode (2 entries, choose either one)

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mikes1

I have a question since I am on Verizon. Does downloading Quickshortcutmaker just to use blocking mode make it any different than just using airplane mode? Do I need blocking mode?

Hightech

works on Nova Prime Launcher too!

sherlock5545

It seems there is no persistent notification anymore on 4.1.2

rapidsandroid

Is Blocking Mode not on Verizon S3's? I can't find it at all.

sherlock5545

I read somewhere that Verizon hid the option from the menu.

rapidsandroid

Communists!

nytmare

What Doit2it stated above may work on some phones, but it doesn't work on my Verizon S3.

Gomjaba

I got an airplane mode widget ... same thing I suppose .. When using Blocking Mode don't forget to untick "Alarm" - made that mistake during the first night when I got my S3 .. Thought Blocking mode is = airplane mode but that disables alarms too by default.

Doit2it

It won't work with the stock TouchWiz interface. You have to install a new launcher that supports shortcuts. I know Apex Launcher and Nova Launcher support shortcuts. Other launchers such as Go EX and ADW EX probably do, I just haven't used them in a while.

Stuntman

I just charge my phone when I'm asleep. I simply silence notifications when I am asleep. Volume Widget is pretty useful for setting a sound profile that turns off notification sounds when I go to sleep and turning it back on when I wake up.

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lpallard

On my sghi747m its not working very well. As a matter of fact its working too well as its blocking calls on a 24/7 basis. Of course I programmed it to be active between 10pm and 6am.

Whenever I am notified that I have a missed call and that the caller left a voicemail, I go to my voicemail and discover that 3 or 4 other people have called and left messages but I never got the missed call or even the phone never ring...

Could be something else but I am sure its the stupid blocking mode as this issue started immediately when I activated the blocking mode....

Has anyone else had problems with it?

cntangcn

I came from blackberry (had used 5 different BB before). When I started android the single most important feature I missed in blackberry is the Auto on / off. Now this blocking function made it, only better (allow you to set exceptions). I understand there are some apps there to do something similar but coming from BB I would have expected this is a built-in feature.

I love this new feature.

gingersnapgirl

now if only it could be added as a toggle alongside airplane mode (which I use far less often...)

SUroot

I've got rid of it. You need root though. You have to decompile settings.apk and change some code.

SUroot

Blackberry devices are so slow to turn on that the "off" function is actually only a standby function, making auto on / "off" appear to work so well.

My gripe with blackberry is the only true way to keep it off is to remove the battery. My bold, I could (literally) blow on the power button and it would turn on. This was poor given I needed it to be off inside my bag.

Stuntman

My gripe with my BB is that it seems to turn on automatically or accidentally. I keep it in my bag and I think that sometimes, the power button gets accidentally pressed as I lay my bag down or pick it up. Once in a while, I find it turned on when it should have been off.

SUroot

Precisely my problem...

THE W

neat feature if you need it.

my phone is on the charger when i go to bed at night.

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nytmare

Thanks for the info, would rather not root just yet.

liverpoolfan

I use Ring Scheduler & Auto Ring ( by developer farproc ).

I typically do the following with Ring Scheduler.

Mon-Sun: 11:00pm turn the phone into silent mode.

Mon-Fri: 5:00am turn the phone into normal mode - I get up around 5:30am.
Sat-Sun: 8:30am turn the phone into normal mode.

Mon-Fri: 9:00am turn the phone into vibrate mode ( am in the office ).
Mon-Fri: 5:30pm turn the phone into normal mode ( am on the train home at this time ).

I use Auto Ring to automatically ring or sound notification for any contact starred in my phone contact list, regardless of what mode the phone is current in. It will resume the same mode after the call or notification has ended.

Both apps are free.


I use Juice Defender Ultimate to turn my smart phone into a phone and have it wake at certain times for 2 or 5 minutes to allow apps to sync. I also allow certain apps to override the JD settings.

Last edited by liverpoolfan; January 8th, 2013 at 06:44 AM.

angeldevilnz

Hey guys,

Silent night app does pretty much the same thing. It even lets you add exceptions as blocking mode does. Its free at play store ツ

Angel ツ

boardtc

I've been experimenting JD ultimate but find my S3 slowing down with it enabled. I have a newspaper app which I need to allow downloading at 4am for 10 minutes, How do I allow certain apps to override JD night mode?

gazr

Iveonly just swapped from an iPhone and that had 'do not disturb' feature which is the same as ' blocking mode'. The only problem I have when I've tried this mode is that it also silents your alarm clock but with the iPhone your alarm still went off

funkylogik

I think its yet another daft feature ill never use.
Theres a perfectly good silent mode lol.
And what happens when the block period finishes? Do u get all the notifications at once thus not saving any battery?

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funkylogik

Honestly? Wow samsung software is great eh lol.
What if u use a 3rd party alarm app mate?

gingersnapgirl

You can configure it so that the alarm clock still goes off. I use it every night, and my alarm still works.

JR866Gooner

Doesnt stop unknown callers calling though.....I have yet to test with allowed contacts and ones that are not but I tested my work phone and unknown callers get through.

What happens to text messages that are blocked?

KodyBrannon

In my experience with blocking mode, it just silences the notifications, and LED doesn't flash, but the notifications of emal, texts or social notifications still arrive and just sit there until you look at the phone.