And Suddenly... Silence.

If you're using a smartphone, you've probably had the effect of there suddenly being some unexpected sound coming out at you - unexpected and unwelcome, for instance because you're in a train, or otherwise in company, and would have preferred this not to happen.

For me, the most common of these instances is when I look at Instagram stories, where both regular stories and the ads popping up inbetween will sometimes include sound. I detest that, because I don't want to be forced to listen to sounds here, and I find it really annoying to turn the volume all the way down before looking at things, and then back up again to the previous level once I'm finished.

A different kind of sound problem recently turned up on a Jitsi meet (which I can recommend for video conferencing, or meet-ups, including boardgaming sessions...)  where it turned out to be impossible for my phone to get the volume down to zero on the speaking/phone call channel. This led to unwelcome and rather unpleasant echoes and feedback loops - not the thing you need.

Fortunately, there's a rather easy solution for both of these problems. Let me introduce you to:

The Silencer.



This is the earphone-style plug from an old connector cable we did not use anymore - the plug of an old pair of earphones that fits your phone's corresponding port would work just as well. We removed the plug from the cable, and the part where the cable would connect to the plug is covered by a bit of heat shrink tube (Schrumpfschlauch, for the Germans), though that's mostly for optical purposes. (Electrician's tape, or some other kind of tape, would work as well to cover it up.)

When that is plugged into the earphone port, the phone promptly will re-route all the noise into the "earphone"... where it quietly disappears, as it's a dead end. Obviously. So the only sound coming out anymore is the Sound of Silence. Bliss.

Now this nifty little thing is parked on my phone stand, to be there for easy and quick remedy of the Noise Problem:



...and the only remaining thing for me is to remember plugging it in before starting Instagram stories - and to remove it again afterwards, so that the phone can make the necessary and welcome noises that it is supposed to make again!