Silent Switch

Dear Apple,

Today I missed two very important calls related to my employment. Like many iPhone users, I find that the silent button is easy to accidentally turn on or forget that it has been turned on. The switch is located on the side of my phone where I can honestly say I do not spend much time looking at despite it’s artistic beauty. When I turn it on or off, a lovely banner appears momentarily to advise me of the status of the switch as though I have a short term memory of less than a microsecond. After the banner disappears, there is no symbology presented on the screen to alert me to the status of the silent switch. I must physically look at the side of my phone to check the status. The problem with this is that if I have accidentally turned it on or forgotten to turn it off, I am not likely to check its status. It is akin to mounting the speedometer of a car on the side fender/mudguard. On behalf of all surgeons, doctors, dentists, radiologists, radiographers, anaesthetists, nurses, fire officers, police officers, paramedics, pilots, cabin crew, reservists, serving members of a defence force, IT help desks, hairdressers, business owners, and the millions of other people who rely on earning an income or attending life threatening emergencies by answering the phone, I implore you to address this issue. The silent mode needs to be more visible, by an icon in the status bar and a notification banner that is permanently displayed on the Lock Screen. It should be easy for a user to identify that their phone is on silent when they pick it up and look at the screen.

Kind Regards,

Scott