Intelligent Ringer for Android

No one wants to be the person whose phone goes off in the middle of an exam or important meeting. Intelligent Ringer claims it can help by adjusting your ringer based on the noise around you. It's doesn't work 100 percent of the time, but it's reliable and customizable enough to be worth the download.

In order for this app to work its magic, it has to be on all of the time. It includes an always-on status bar notification, too. It saves battery life by only making big changes when your phone actually rings. Though you can set maximum and minimum volume levels, you can't change how the noise level changes based on environment. That means it's always going to make your phone louder in a loud environment and quieter in a quiet environment. After calibrating the app twice during testing, it didn't seem to change ringer volume at all. In both a noisy room and a quiet area, the ringer volume was set to the same level every time. The app began to work after about a day of it being on full-time, though. Intelligent Ringer's pocket detection did seem to raise the phone's volume after a brief walk, with the phone in a purse, too.

The app is a nice idea, but it's a pain to set up. Try it on your gadget before you completely rule it out, but don't expect to be wowed. If you absolutely need a smarter way to set your ringtone, Intelligent Ringer saves a few dollars over NFC chips.