You can put your iPhone into silent mode by using the switch on the side when you don’t want the ringtone to make a bunch of noise. On the other hand, we all have someone special in our lives we still want to hear notifications from, regardless of everyone else.
PowerCaller is a new free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Joe Merlino that lets you override the mute switch and boost the ringtone volume for one specific contact, and it’s perfect for the aforementioned scenario.
Update: As indicated by one of iDB’s readers, iOS 10 will allow you to do this out of the box. By going to the Contacts app and visiting Edit → Ringtone → Emergency Bypass, you can allow contacts through Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode on a per-contact basis. The tweak was intended for iOS 9.3.3, a version of iOS that didn’t yet support this feature at the time.
After you install the tweak, a preferences pane gets added to the Settings app for turning the tweak on or off and for choosing the contact whom you want to bend the rules for:
You will need to manually type in the contact’s name exactly as it appears in your Contacts app. This is because the tweak does a check for the contact’s name when you receive an inbound call.
If the name is a match, the ringtone will be allowed through the filter regardless of mute switch positioning. If the name isn’t a match, then your ringtone will be suppressed just as it was intended to be in the first place whenever the mute switch is turned to the “silent” setting.
PowerCaller is a great way to avoid getting scolded by a grumpy significant other when you fail to hear your iPhone ringing because you left it in silent mode by accident and don’t pick up their calls. There are probably a number of other niche ways that it can be used, depending on your lifestyle and how you use your device.
If you’re interested in trying PowerCaller, you can download it for free from Cydia’s BigBoss repository right now. The tweak works with all jailbroken iOS 9 and 10 devices that sport a ringer/silent switch, which includes all iPhones and some older iPad models.
If you want to see what makes the tweak tick, be sure to head over to the developer’s GitHub page.
You might also like: This tweak keeps notification banners from getting in the way of your apps
Will you be using PowerCaller on your device? Share why or why not in the comments below.
