Dear LPG,

I am learning all the time about the little Intricacies that comprise the wonders of my mobile phone. I have a smartphone because a lot of my family live abroad and I am always amazed at how cheaply I can use it to get in touch, see and send pictures to far-flung parts of the world.

Though I am well past the age of 80 years, my offspring’s offspring always have something new to tell me about my phone when we get together. Just when I think that I have learned all there is to know (let me rephrase that … all I need to know) about the thing, one of my grandchildren will manage to show me something new (well, new to me anyway), but I cannot blame them for the nugget of information that I am about to share with you now. 

I noticed whenever my (not so young) little ones come to visit, I had become intrigued about all the little noises that their phones make and wondered why. 

Well, they told me that I was hearing the notification tones.  I had no idea what they were talking about until it was explained to me.  According to them most smart phones and iPhones are working nearly all the time; even when we are not aware. 

I took my granddaughter to one side recently and asked her to explain in more detail.  She told me that, even if you don’t use the thing much, more information than we know is being sent to us through the apps that we have.  She told me that all the texts that we receive (including all the adverts and messages from which ever service provider we use; Vodafone, EE, 02 etc.), the WhatsApp messages we get from people all over the world, messages about the recent software changes your phone needs in order to keep up to date with all the improvements that need to be made to it and other messages are being sent to the phone all the time.   I asked why my phone did not make all the sounds that theirs always appeared to.  My granddaughter told me that most phones allow them to receive notifications silently, but she added that if I really wanted it she could make them audible for me.

I thought that would be a good idea because I could feel more important when the other youngsters came around, so my granddaughter did her magic on the touchscreen and we spent some time finding nice sounds for when the phone receives a text, an update, or an email and all too quickly I learned that I was just as important as everyone else.  I looked forward to a dinner I was hosting for the whole family a few days later, where I could show off how remembered the sound of my mobile phone reminded me that I was.

Over the next three days I realised how annoying those little sounds can become.  The phone sounds seemed to happen every five minutes and it was really surprising how annoying they were to me.  I was aware of it when I was shopping, washing up, trying to catch the news on telly and doing so many other things. When my house was full of my family with their mobiles a few days later, the interruptions of my phone seemed to me to be more annoying than all the other little telephone pings and bursts of sound that I could hear.  I have to say the experience reminded me of being a new mum (I really got to recognise the sounds that my granddaughter had programmed my phone to make) and each one seemed louder than all the others that I could hear.  

At the end of the day I decided to take my granddaughter to one side and get her to make it silent again, but I know now just how many things get sent to my phone that I was never aware of before.

  KE, Lewisham

LPG’s advice is that it is a good thing to be able to find your smartphone or iPhone notifications, but it is not vital to hear each one as it arrives.  We found a little information on notifications, although what we did find has succeeded in making a relatively simple concept appear really complicated, so we suggest that if you want to know more about how to get them, you follow KE’s lead and find someone who knows how to show you the details.

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