BigFlyer

I like to turn my phone ringer off when I go to sleep to avoid random calls - but I also like to be available for family if I am really needed.

At one time I used an Android app called Texte which allowed one to define a hot word - and, if an incoming SMS had that word, an alarm would go off. This allowed me to turn the ringer off, but I gave family the word and method to wake me up if need be.

Sadly, that app stopped working a few Android iterations ago and has not been updated.

I just realized that I could get the same functionality with Tasker. It costs $2.99 at the Play Store, or you can download a 7-day trial here: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/.

With Tasker, it is very easy to create a "profile" which watched incoming SMS and when it sees the hot word - an alarm goes off (even if the ringer is turned off.)

Aus_Mal

The latest version of Android has this functionality built in. It's called "Do not Disturb" functionality.

MAN Pax

I use Nights Keeper. It silences my phone between 12-7 every day, irrespective of where I am. (My choice of hours). You can whitelist numbers to break the silence.

Works very well for me.

gobluetwo

I use this and white list certain groups and numbers. Works well.

BigFlyer

Do not disturb does not work the same way.

With do not disturb, you can whitelist a number that will break through the do not disturb. So if you go to sleep early, go to sleep late, take a nap, or are not in your usual time zone, one of your whitelisted contacts can easily wake you up by accident. Or if one of your whitelisted people does not have access to their whitelisted phone (e.g., stolen cell phone), they would not be able to get through.

The system I set up requires the person to make an affirmative decision to wake me up if I am sleeping by sending the SMS with the hot word. Also, I let people know that they can call me any time day or night because I turn my ringer off when I go to sleep (and if my family was whitelisted, they could not call late at night in a non-emergency because the phone would ring based on the number they were calling from.

DenverBrian

...or, you could just turn off your phone and sleep. Until 2007, this is how the world worked.

WIRunner

Yeah, but people would just call the house phone then. Not quite as easy to set those to DND.

BigFlyer

Do people still have landline phones?

WIRunner

Some people do yes. We did for quite a while.

DenverBrian

The house phone would have a hard line. Which could be disconnected from its socket. @:-)

(You millennials. )

KRSW

I have ONE left... and it's only because the alarm system's on it and my insurance co pays for it. I don't even have a telephone connected to it. Trying to see if I can get it converted over to a GSM/UTMS/LTE setup instead.

At the rest of my homes, it's VoIP (SIP) as it's been since ~2004.

techvoyager

does anyone know an apple alternative?

doraemonkerpal

The iPhone has the Do Not Disturb function in the settings. You can allow calls from people on your "favorites" list. ^

gobluetwo

Android has this, but this is not what the OP was looking for, and not clear if techvoyager is looking for an explicit emergency exception app like OP, or just the DND feature. I am assuming the latter.

Don't know the Apple ecosystem and can't access itunes store from work, so i'm of no further help