Microsoft has just a patented a way to make your smartphone less noticeable and least distractive when you are present in certain environments and the tech giant has termed it as inconspicuous mode. You can use this mode at an official dinner, movie theater or at home when you’re about to go to bed.
The U.S government awarded the patent to Microsoft on Thursday.
It’s basically based on the notion that your phone might annoy and distract the persons sitting closer to you when you’re in a quiet and a darker place.
This Theater mode would enable your device to go silent and also dim the light to almost the lowest state plus the notifications also don’t show up on the home screen as well so that when you’re sitting in environment where you don’t want to disturb the persons sitting right next to you.
Microsoft described that one also has the liberty to customize this inconspicuous mode to your own liking and needs. Some may want to show text messages on the home screen and some might not want their screens to go completely dark, so there’s a bit of everything for everybody.
The main feature is that this feature would be automatic; meaning through the phones built in GPS it would recognize that you’re in such an environment where this mode needs to go on and on it shall go. It could also be triggered through the Theater’s Wi-Fi or Bluetooth beacons or your phone’s light sensor can also trigger it when it detects that you’re in a dark place.
Your phone could also figure out when to go quiet by looking into your calendar or your recent mobile payments or if you bought event tickets at the counter via tap to pay technology.
Venues will probably want to embrace it as smartphone disturbances are one of the most popular forms of annoyance at most of the venues.