Quiet Hours, an easy way to give your Windows Phone a little quiet time

By George Ponder
last updated

Quick show of hands, how many have turned off their Windows Phone ringer at night or during a meeting only to forget to turn it back on? 

Quiet Hours is a simple Windows Phone 8 app that is designed to give your Windows Phone a little quiet time for those occasions where you do not want to be disturbed.  Once the quiet hours have passed, the app will set your Windows Phone ringer to a preset volume.

Quiet Hours can be a handy app for Windows Phone 8 should you find yourself dialing down the volume often or during regular intervals during the day.

Quiet Hours interface is straightforward with the free version (which is more or less a trial version).  You can pin a toggle switch to your Windows Phone Start Screen or use the control button (the check mark button) within the app to turn on/off the quiet mode.  While the Live Tile is nice, one-touch solution for muting your Windows Phone you will need to pick up the optional scheduler ($.99 in-app purchase) to really get anything out of the app.

When purchased the scheduler will let you use the slider bars to set the time you want your Windows Phone to go quiet during the day, when you want it to wake up and the ringer volume you want to use after the quiet time.

Quiet Hours Scheduler Settings

The only drawback to Quiet Hours functionality is that the times can only be set to the top of each hour.  If you have a meeting at 9:30am you’ll need to set the timer to start at 9:00am.  There is also an OS limitation that may impact when your volume level is set.  Background tasks can be run once every thirty minutes so there may be a delay in setting the volume level when quiet time is over.   I can’t say that either issue are deal breakers but does hold the app back just a little.

Quiet Hours Live Tile

Overall, Quiet Hours is a nice Windows Phone 8 app. The scheduler lets you set the quiet times in advance and for those not wanting to make the in-app purchase, the Live Tile toggle switch is a convenient one-touch means to mute your Windows Phone..

Quiet Hours is a free app with the scheduler add-on being a $.99 in-app purchase. It is available for Windows Phone 8 devices and you can find your copy of Quiet Hours here in the Windows Phone Store.

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

60 Comments
  • I am on call a lot and what i desperately need is for all alerts to be turned off besides incoming calls from a group of people. If quiet time did that then it would be perfect.
  • There was a Symbian app called situations that did this. I'm still waiting on a replacement for that, this comes close but not quite good enough imo.
  • Yes i used situations, all functionality of that program is needed in Windows Phone.
  • Absolutely agree with you, Nokia Situations was amazing on Symbian. In fact, there was this other app for the N9 (MeeGo) called ProfileMatic that was free and did an amazing job of setting various parameters (like WiFi or BT to on/off etc. besides ringer volume) depending on many trigger situations. MS better catch up fast on this... rather silly that they never thought about profiles when its one of the basic smartphone features.
  • Yeah I'd like something similar: when I'm about to go to sleep I hit a button that mutes until my alarm time, except for calls (I assume that if someone's calling at that time, it's important). Maybe also set an auto time (e.g. 1am) so if I forget to hit mute then it does it by then anyway.
  • can it turn off and on vibrate aswell? i want to turn off sound and vibrate at night time, but have both of them on during daytime.   -han
  • omg i need this in my life again
  • There should be a better option for let say, just silence the notifications like email,news etc, and allowing only a incoming call... I have to disable WiFi and data every night for that...
  • is there a app like this that lets you schedule which day
  • Will this make the wireless charger 920 bug stop sounding? Probably not as it would vibrate still. I wish I could turn vibrate off too.
  • you can turn off vibrate in ringtone settings, i turn ringer & vibrate off before bed
  • Thanks. I never go there, I jus use the volume keys, and tap the upper right. I will try this tonight.
  • You can turn off vibrate manually
  • I know this is not the place the post but Nokia Lumia Black update is now avaible for Lumia 920 at least in Turkey I dont know the other countries :)
  • Off topic but watsapp needs a big update. Minor updates wont work they should provide a better version b4 Build.
  • If you could schedule certain days of the week as well as the time during that day, this app would be great.  Until that time, it's not real useful to me.
  • While this app looks good and probably works well, I think this should be an OS feature that is integrated with the calendar. The phone already knows when I'll be in a meeting so it should automatically turn the ringer off then and turn it back on when the calendar shows the meeting is over. If I'm not mistaken this existed in Windows Mobile 6.x.
  • Correct, on all counts. This feature would be best if implemented within the OS and fully integrated with the calendar so that sound profile during meetings is automatically handled.
    And yes, Windows Mobile had this capability, which MS did not migrate to Windows Phone when they replaced WinMo.
    The features this app offers is similar to a WinMo utility, though not as complete, that allowed automated sound profiles based on user defined schedules.
    This issue of automated sound profile is one if my personal gripes with the OS; my son, a student, never answers his phone because his ringer has to always be off at school, and he never remembers to turn it back on.
  • Full ack!
  • This functionality was in Nokia phones from teh beggining of the cell-phones, in the XX cent. as Profiles. The last phones with this was Symbian, now it's all gone :( Sad.   I don't get it - why they cut all this useful features: profiles, vcard via sms, own ringtones... M$ *&^%@&^%@*&#
  • http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/quiet-hours/f347a36b-80c0-430f-8631-e55046ee5a2a
  • I miss the old windows mobile where it would auto silence based on meetings in your calendar. Would rather have that functionality.
  • Omg I miss windows mobile sometimes.
  • I really want this and will pay for it, BUT, I will wait until Build to see what MS has in store for us on the Developer Preview schedule.
  • Now that's a handy little feature right there
  • this does NOT stop vibrate when in silent mode & that often wakes me
  • Thanks for this information. I was about to buy the in-App, but like this it is useless for me...
  • yeah too late for me, think i can ask for my 99c back LOL
  • Where's the link though..?
  • http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/quiet-hours/f347a36b-80c0-43...
  • Thank you!
  • How do you programmatically set the volume? Didn't know that was possible o_0
  • As far as i know, you cant...
  • Pretty Cool, and definitely needed.  You would think Microsoft would build this into the OS, as in iOS 7 or Android.
  • Great app, still not be as powerful as Symbian's Situations but nice try anyway
  • OS limitation here, OS limitation there...I sure wish Microsoft would put more resources on the WP development team to get all of these sorted out. It's actually amazing how much developers cope with the OS, see SongArc's timeshifting as an example. I hope Microsoft improves this situation fast...
  • Every mobile OS has limitations. At least Msft is serious about security. You don't want a virus to mess up your phone, do you?
  • I thought there was a setting that lets you turn the phone over and it goes silent? At least on my 520 there is...
  • This SHOULD already be part of the OS......
  • The fact that is app is about as good as it gets on this front is one of a handful of reasons I'm probably going back to Android when my contract is up. My smartphone is decidedly less smart.
  • I'm not going back to iPhone but I agree this is just stunning how MS can't seem to add basic features that their two competitors have.  They are in a distant 3rd.  They should be doing everything to make ths OS better than their competition.   They keep saying they are working on infrastructure and carrier features, but they are a company with enourmous resources of money and talent.  Clearly they can walk and chew gum at the same time.   I honestly cannot figure out what is going on.
  • +1
  • +1
  • Don't make any decisions until 8.1
  • I remember back when I was supposed to hold out until 7.5. Back when we were dissapointed in how little nodo brought and people were saying "nodo is just to fix huge ommisions like copy/paste - mango is the update that will be bringing the OS up to par". Flash forward almost 3 years and it's startling how little has changed.
  • FYI: I paid the upcharge to get the schedule feature. and it doesn't work.  You get a hard error when you try to turn it on.  Also, the product doesn't show up in the Background Apps list to enable it for background processing. I have a L920 patched with Amber.  Maybe it only works with black or maybe its just broken.  
  • Works on my 820 at Amber.  I really like this app--I may start using ring tones again instead of just leaving the phone on vibrate.  Ideally, I'd like a single tile (or a built-on for the OS) that lets you tap to cycle silent -> ring -> ring + vibe -> vibe -> silent.  But at least the developers of this app are working on a single tile to toggle between ringer on and ringer off. This all should be in the OS, but until it is, this is a very nice app to have.  
  • Update: The scheduler is working for me too now.  The maker of this app pushed out an update yesterday.   Not sure if that fixed it or something else did it.  Regardless, this is a nice app and I recommend it.  yes, this feature should clearly be baked into the OS.  Really no excuse for it to be missing at this point, but at least we have an option now.  
  • I've written Nokia 100 times to make this a firmware feature, like on my old Sanyo PCS phones.
  • I'd like to see a Do Not Disturb feature built right into the OS, like iOS has. Shouldn't need an app for that kind of feature. Would be great for sleeping and meetings, etc.
  • +1
  • Windows 8/RT already has this. I don't see why Windows Phone doesn't.
  • I don't like much on my iPhone 5 over my HTC Windows 7 handset. However iOS' do not disturb is killer for me. My iPhone is great for Candy Crush, but does not serve me well at work. I hope when WinPhone 9 comes along, and I can upgrade from my iPhone 5 that the quiet time setting on my Surface Pro will have been improved and migrated to WinPhone.
  • Didn't know apps could control this stuff. Very useful.
  • Very interesting app. So, Microsoft has allowed volume control API? 
  • This is built on Windows 8. How come this isn't on Windows Phone too?!
  • WHY YOU PEOPLE DON'T JUST UNDERSTAND??? GOD OF GADGETS MSFT HAS GIFTED YOU WITH OS LIMITATIONS FOR SAKE OF SECURITY AND REAL TIME NON UPDATING (DEAD) LIVE TILES FOR SAKE OF BATTERY LIFE... AND HANGING ALL TIME L720....
  • Does anyone know which API allows volume control?
  • How do you programmatically set the volume? Didn't know that was possible? Any Hidden api? But, still, how did microsoft allow this app on store?
  • For the many of us who don't live in America and who don't want to change region on our phone because it means we can't buy apps, this is a needed app. Problem is that since 8.1, it doesn't work any more. Do I now have to wait till 2015 before getting do not disturb?