I installed SmartSilent two months ago and since then it has become my most dependable and top performing personal assistant, and now, I just cannot live without her! Erm, ‘it’. SmartSilent is so simple in its concept, but incredibly ingenious in what it does – I just really can’t understand why anybody wouldn’t want this on their phone! I think it should be made a standard built-in feature of every device that gets made.

So what does it do exactly, I hear you ask? Well, quite simply SmartSilent will send a fully customizable automated SMS to anybody who calls you when your phone’s profile is set to ‘silent’ – It takes seconds to set up and works perfectly every single time. Now isn’t that just awesome?! Indeed it is.

SmartSilent is available in the Ovi Store for just €3 and is the excellent creation of JPH-Soft. It is compatible with various Symbian OS S60 3.x, 5.0 and Symbian OS, S^3 devices.

There are a few simple settings you can change to get the app set up for use - I personally haven’t changed the settings since the first time I installed it.

The first option enables you to edit the minimum length of digits the Tel.no has to have for it to receive the automated message. Keep the country code default on ’0′ to ensure it captures every number that calls you, or change it if you only want to send an auto-reply to callers from a specific country, (I haven’t quite thought of a reason why you would want to do this yet - But please send me some examples if you can think of any!).

Keep the AutoStart setting as ‘enabled’ for it to launch automatically each time you turn on your phone. As soon as you turn your phone to ‘silent’ you will get a little prompt saying SmartSilent has now been activated – Wonderful design integration that requires no constant setting up.

Change the ‘Auto-reply’ settings to send to ‘All’ or to just your contacts – Again, I have always just kept this to ’All’ so that anybody who calls me is always up to date with my status if I’m on silent.

After setting this up, you can then edit the Auto-Reply SMS itself to the most relevant message you want to leave – And then you’re done!

In the modern day world of instant communication, not being able to reach someone on their mobile can be an immediate cause for concern or curiosity. We can leave voicemail’s if a phone is off and we send SMS messages to tell someone we’re busy - But if youre in a meeting or at the doctor’s, SmartSilent provides a practical solution to everyday scenario’s. Much like ’Out of Office’ messages are used, or online Messenger statuses can be changed to keep people aware of your immediate availability - SmartSilent, will add another dimension to keeping people informed of what you’re up to.  Well done SmartSilent!

Now lets think of some fun auto-reply text messages!

‘My phone is on Silent as I am having my beauty sleep, I will call you back in a couple of hours!”

More information with additional screenshots can be found on the JPH-Soft site.