Attention Aware Features

[velocityg4]

Until now I didn't realize Attention Aware Features existed. I missed an important call today because I never heard the phone ring. Awaiting to hear news from my Dad after being admitted to the ER. Even though I had the ringer and volume cranked all the way up and Silent Mode disabled.

I knew I had it set all correctly. Afterward I verified all settings where correct and the ringer volume was loud when I checked the slider. Plus I had the option to change ringer volume with buttons off. Then I made a test call and it was barely audible.

After some digging. I found out about the Attention Aware Features setting. So, if you're wondering why your ringer isn't consistent. Check this settings. It answers my question about why I get so many voicemail without the phone ringing.

I suppose I'm just venting. Missing a call I'd been waiting all day for. I don't recall ever turning this on. Is it on by default? Seems like something which should be off by default. At least until Face ID is 100% perfect at detecting awareness. It's almost as annoying as the Silent Mode switch which is so easy to trigger.

Just wondering what your thoughts were on this feature.
- Should it default off? Maybe it is and I just turned it on and forgot about it.
- Should alert tones be separate from other attention aware features?
- Did this solve a problem with your calls that you just chalked up to missing the ringer?

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Attention aware only works when you're looking at the screen. If you weren't looking at the screen and the ringer, voicemail or notifications didn't sound, something else is the cause

 

[jav6454]

Attention awareness doesn't cause this behavior.

 

[adrianlondon]

Any chance you'd enabled DND (or Focus if you're on an iOS 15 beta) without realising? The other option is simply that the call took a while to connect they hung up before your phone rang.

There is a volume bug in many of the iOS 14 versions where you need to go into settings and turn off the "volume changes with buttons" or whatever it is, and set the ringer up to the high volume you want. The bug manifests itself in that when you turn down the media playback volume, and the "change with buttons" is enabled, it'll often drop the ringer volume down as well.

 

[velocityg4]

Any chance you'd enabled DND (or Focus if you're on an iOS 15 beta) without realising? The other option is simply that the call took a while to connect they hung up before your phone rang.

There is a volume bug in many of the iOS 14 versions where you need to go into settings and turn off the "volume changes with buttons" or whatever it is, and set the ringer up to the high volume you want. The bug manifests itself in that when you turn down the media playback volume, and the "change with buttons" is enabled, it'll often drop the ringer volume down as well.

I already had "volume changes with buttons" set to off. So, that isn't the issue. I also tested turning the volume all the way down and the ringer still works as expected.

The silence switch is off and taped in place.

I've done multiple test calls with Attention Awareness on and off. It's the only one I've found which greatly lowers the ringer volume when enabled. All I can surmise is it must get thrown off sometimes. Maybe from wearing glasses or how it's angled relative to my sitting position. Where it thinks I'm looking at the phone when I'm not.

If there's anything else which can cause this. I'd love to know. The hospital doesn't allow visitors and my dad won't try to call me again until tomorrow. I'd hate for him to think I'm not awaiting his call when it simply isn't ringing.

Maybe I should just switch my SIM Card back to my Pixel 3. Because this has happened with quite a few calls. Where I get a voicemail out of the blue with no ringing. It's just never bothered me enough to look into it before.

 

[0128672]

Sorry to hear about your dad @velocityg4, and hope he will be ok.

 

[adrianlondon]

Attention Aware works to drop the volume when the phone is unlocked and you're staring at it.

Turn Attention Aware features on or off on your iPhone or iPad Pro – Apple Support (UK)

Turn Attention Aware features on or off.

support.apple.com

 

[velocityg4]

Sorry to hear about your dad @velocityg4, and hope he will be ok.

Thank you. He doesn't think it's life threatening. But I hate not knowing what it is. He's been admitted for a few days of testing. To find out what it is. Which isn't great to hear. Knowing is better than not knowing. All I have are symptoms to go off of which does not make for a great time looking at the possible worst case scenarios on the web.

 

[0128672]

Thank you. He doesn't think it's life threatening. But I hate not knowing what it is. He's been admitted for a few days of testing. To find out what it is. Which isn't great to hear. Knowing is better than not knowing. All I have are symptoms to go off of which does not make for a great time looking at the possible worst case scenarios on the web.

Sounds like you may not be in the same area, and that you're on standby waiting for updates. That's a hard position to be in. Hope your phone cooperates.

 

[Squillace]

Best wishes for your dad !

I don't understand HOW attention aware could interfere with that call. Unless there was a bug, the phone doesn't guess you are looking at the screen if you are actually not. It doesn't even trigger (at least for me) if I'm not looking right to it. And as far as I know (but I can be wrong) those don't come up with the phone locked or unused. You have to actually use the phone and stare at it for it to work.
And if you were using it by the time you got the call, even muted you would've got the on screen call screen notification.

I put all my bets on a bug, either of the attention aware feature or the system itself. But, used as intended and without bugs, the thing works pretty well and you have no reason to stop using it...

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I already had "volume changes with buttons" set to off. So, that isn't the issue. I also tested turning the volume all the way down and the ringer still works as expected.

The silence switch is off and taped in place.

I've done multiple test calls with Attention Awareness on and off. It's the only one I've found which greatly lowers the ringer volume when enabled. All I can surmise is it must get thrown off sometimes. Maybe from wearing glasses or how it's angled relative to my sitting position. Where it thinks I'm looking at the phone when I'm not.

If there's anything else which can cause this. I'd love to know. The hospital doesn't allow visitors and my dad won't try to call me again until tomorrow. I'd hate for him to think I'm not awaiting his call when it simply isn't ringing.

Maybe I should just switch my SIM Card back to my Pixel 3. Because this has happened with quite a few calls. Where I get a voicemail out of the blue with no ringing. It's just never bothered me enough to look into it before.

When my phone is on the stand at my desk (or on the desk with the screen facing up toward my face) if I tap the screen to wake, it will unlock the phone even at distance or odd angles.. You might be surprised how far and what angles the FaceID camera can tell your looking at the phone.. If the screen is off, attention aware isn't even utilized so I highly doubt it would be the cause. You can turn off attention aware if you want, it reduces the security of the phone but not by a huge margin. The phone will unlock with your eyes closed (while sleeping for example) so if that doesn't worry you give it a try to see if it solves your issue. You could also try and restore your phone using finder/iTunes as that fixes odd issues most of the time.