Notifications on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch can come in handy, but you don’t always want to be bothered by phone calls, texts, and all other types of notifications. Whether you're busy or just want some quiet time, you can control and disable notifications on your device for specific contacts and apps.
Apple’s Do Not Disturb has long been the easiest way to turn off notifications, but the company has revamped this capability in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8 with the addition of Focus. You can now more easily control notifications for when you’re asleep or driving. There is also the ability to set up profiles for your personal life and work life.
Customize Do Not Disturb
To take advantage of this feature, you must be running iOS 15/iPadOS 15 or higher. Navigate to Settings > General > Software Update. You’ll be told that the OS is up to date or be prompted to download and install the latest update.
To set up different options for Focus on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Focus. Select the Do Not Disturb option to prevent phone calls, text messages, alerts, and other notifications from popping up on your screen, making a noise, or vibrating your device.
Phone calls and text messages still arrive; you just won't see or hear any notification when they do. The Do Not Disturb screen presents you with a few different options to tweak.
Your first task is to determine which notifications are allowed to reach you even with Do Not Disturb turned on. Under Allowed Notifications, tap the entry for People. To allow notifications from specific contacts, tap the Add People button, then choose the contacts. Anyone you select will appear in the list under Allowed People. To remove a person from the list, tap their icon’s minus sign.
Tap the Calls From entry to determine if you want to allow calls from everyone, no one, people you’ve designated as Favorites, or all contacts. You may want to turn on the switch for Allow Repeated Calls based on the assumption that someone who needs to reach you in the event of an emergency might try calling several times in a row.
Return to the Allowed Notifications screen and tap the Apps heading. Tap the Add App button and choose any apps you wish to receive notifications from when Do Not Disturb is enabled. Apps you choose will appear in the list under Allowed Apps. You can also turn on the switch for Time Sensitive to allow app notifications marked as time sensitive. Remove an app from the list by tapping the minus sign on its icon.
Under the Do Not Disturb menu, you can select Focus Status to allow apps to tell people who try to contact you that you have silenced notifications. Enable the Share Focus Status switch to enable this feature.
Open Do Not Disturb > Home Screen and enable Hide Notification Badges to hide notification badges from apps on your device’s home screen. Select a custom page to pop up when Focus is turned on.
Under Do Not Disturb > Lock Screen, you can choose to dim the lock screen when Do Not Disturb is enabled and show silenced notifications.
Your last option is to turn on an automated schedule for Do Not Disturb, which activates the feature at specific times and locations, or when using certain apps. Open Do Not Disturb > Add Schedule or Automation and follow the steps to set this up.
Customize Focus for Driving
Under Focus > Driving, turn on the Driving switch to manually silence phone calls, texts, and other notifications while you’re driving. To allow notifications from specific people, tap the People entry and add the necessary contacts. You can also allow calls from everyone, no one, favorites, or all contacts, and allow repeated calls.
Tap Focus Status and enable Share Focus Status under the Driving screen to allow apps to tell people who contact you that notifications are silenced. Tap Auto Reply to determine who should receive an automated response when notifications are disabled. You can also compose a custom auto-reply message.
Under the Driving menu, tap the While Driving option to select notifications when driving, when connected to your car’s Bluetooth, or manually. You can also activate this mode when your iPhone connects with CarPlay.
Customize Focus for Sleep
Open Focus > Sleep and enable Sleep to manually disable notifications when you’re ready for bed. Tap People to allow notifications from specific contacts and set who can call you. Tap Apps to allow notifications from specific apps and enable Time Sensitive to allow any urgent notifications to reach you.
Go to Sleep > Focus Status and enable Share Focus Status if you wish to alert people who contact you that you’ve silenced notifications. Tap Home Screen to hide notifications badges for apps on your home screen and set up a custom page to display when Focus is turned on. Tap Lock Screen to show silenced notifications on the lock screen.
From the Sleep screen, enable Turn on at Wind Down to silence notifications at your wind-down period before you go to bed. Tap the Edit link to set your bedtime and wake-up hours for the next day. Tap Schedule and Options to set the hours for your regular weekday schedule.
Customize Focus for Work and Home
Open Focus > Personal to set up allowed notifications for a typical day at home. Tap Next to get started, then add contacts who should be allowed to contact you when Focus is turned on. Tap Allow when finished. You can also add any apps you want to allow, then tap Allow.
At the Personal screen, turn on the Personal switch to manually activate this setting. You can then customize the Focus Status, Home Screen, and Lock Screen options.
If you have specific work hours, open Focus > Work to set up allowed notifications during work hours. You can add specific contacts and apps that are allowed when Focus is turned on. Enable this feature by turning on the Work switch. You can also set up a Focus Status, home screen, and lock screen, or tap Add Schedule or Automation to automatically turn the feature on at certain times or when you travel into your office.
Add Focus Categories and Share Settings
Tap the plus (+) icon in the top-right corner of the Focus screen if you want to add even more categories for Focus. You can select categories such as Fitness, Gaming, Mindfulness, or Reading. Select Custom to create your own category and follow the steps to set up allowed people and apps. Under the list of categories, you can enable Share Across Devices to save all your Do Not Disturb and Focus settings across all your other devices.
Enable Focus Categories
You can easily access your Focus categories via the Control Center on your device. Tap Focus, then tap a category, such as Work or Driving, to turn on the settings you previously set up.
For additional options, tap the ellipsis icon on a specific category. You can then enable the Focus category for one hour, until a specific time, or until you leave your current location. Tap Settings to view or change any of the settings for a category. You can also create a new category if you tap the plus (+) icon at the bottom of the screen.
Enable Notification Summary
You can further manage your notifications on your iPhone or iPad under Settings > Notifications. Tap Scheduled Summary and enable the switch to generate a summary of all your notifications at a specific time. This will also permit calls, messages, and other time-sensitive notifications to reach you.
At the Choose Apps screen, you can add any apps for which you would like to see notifications in the summary screen. Select any apps in the list, then tap Add Apps to make your selection.
From the Set a Schedule screen, you can set a time for when you receive your notification summary. Tap the plus (+) icon to create additional summaries to be sent at various times over the span of the day. Tap Turn on Notification Summary when finished.
From the Scheduled Summary screen, you can change the times, peek at the next summary, and add or remove apps from the summary.
Manage Notifications on Apple Watch
You can update your Apple Watch from your iPhone. Open the Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, and open General > Software Update to install any updates. Or do this directly from the watch via Settings > General > Software Update; tap Install if an update is available.
Notifications on an Apple Watch are less noisy than they are on an iPhone or iPad. However, you can still prevent them from appearing, especially if you're in a public place where you don't want to bother other people. Your Apple Watch can mimic the Focus settings from your iPhone, so enabling it on your iPhone will automatically enable it on your watch.
On your iPhone, open the Watch app. Swipe down to the General setting, and tap Focus. Make sure the option for Mirror iPhone is turned on. The fine print below this option indicates that your watch takes on the same Focus settings that you enabled on your phone.
You can also enable certain options directly from your watch. Swipe up on your watch face to access the Control Center. You can then tap the half-moon icon to turn on Focus mode, then select the specific category you want to activate.
If you choose the bell icon, you can turn on Silent mode, which silences notifications but still allows you to feel them through the watch’s haptic-touch feature. Tap the comedy and tragedy mask icon to go into Theater mode, which will enable Silent mode and dim the display.