If You Can Read This Do Not Disturb

Apple's Evolution of Practice Not Disturb Helps You lot Focus

Wednesday, 01 December 2021 10:02 - (831)

Between texts, alarms, reminders, calls, and myriad other notifications on our iPhones, iPads, and Macs, information technology's a miracle we get anything done at all. To free us from this onslaught, Apple tree previously provided Do Not Disturb, which let yous set times during which you could be complimentary from interruption.

In iOS xv, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey, Apple has gone fifty-fifty further. Exercise Not Disturb is now called Focus, and Apple has made information technology more powerful and flexible. Focus can turn on automatically at certain times, at particular locations, or when y'all're using sure apps then you tin avoid interruptions during activities similar working out, doing homework, eating dinner, or gaming. Simply not all interruptions—you can permit certain people and apps to break through the cone of silence. A Focus can also hide or testify certain Home screen pages, prevent notifications from actualization on the Lock screen, and more than. Plus, all your devices can share the same Focus settings—we're showing iPhone screenshots below, but the interface is identical in iPadOS and like on the Mac, where you'll detect it in Organization Preferences > Notifications & Focus > Focus.

In Settings > Focus, Apple provides a pre-built Focus for Exercise Non Disturb, Driving, and Slumber to match the old Do Non Disturb options:

• Do Not Disturb: This catch-all Focus takes over from the old Do Non Disturb setting.
• Driving: This Focus replaces the old Exercise Not Disturb While Driving option. Information technology's unusual in that it doesn't allow whatsoever app notifications through at all (optics on the road!). It also lets you write a custom automobile-reply for those who text you while you're driving.
• Slumber: If you employ Apple'due south sleep management features in the Health app, yous'll use this Focus to control which notifications can get through while you're asleep.

Apart from those, Apple tree makes vi suggestions: Personal and Piece of work (in the main list), and Fitness, Gaming, Mindfulness, and Reading (when you add a new Focus). Y'all can likewise create a custom Focus from scratch.

Apple's suggestions are special in one of import way. Fitness, Gaming, and Mindfulness tin turn on automatically: when yous're engaged in a workout, when y'all connect a wireless controller, and when y'all're in a Mindfulness session started from your Apple Sentinel, respectively.

When configuring a suggested Focus or creating a new one from scratch, Focus runs you through several setup screens. Ane has y'all choose people whose notifications you want to come through regardless, and what to do nigh incoming phone calls. The other screen lets you choice which apps can notify you when the Focus is agile, with an boosted option to allow notifications marked as Time Sensitive through regardless. (Time Sensitive notifications include timed Reminders alerts, for case, and are ordinarily best left enabled.)

Once your Focus is ready, you can configure various options, including:

• Focus Status: Enable this option to allow apps to warning those who message you that you take notifications silenced.
• Home Screen: If your Focus involves y'all using the Home screen a lot, you can have information technology hide notification badges that might lure you into another app or even hide unabridged Home screen pages that could be distracting.
• Lock Screen: If you might be looking at your Lock screen while the Focus is active, you tin can have it dim automatically and hide or show silenced notifications as appropriate.
• Schedule or Automation: Although y'all can turn on any Focus from Control Center, it may exist easier to have information technology turn itself on automatically at certain times, in detail locations, or when certain apps are agile.

As with any new feature, it's going to take a bit to effigy out how to make Focus work best for you. We're nonetheless learning it ourselves, but here are some recommendations:

• To identify when a Focus would be helpful, look until you lot find notifications irritating and then call up about which ones you'd want a Focus to block.
• Create just one or two Focuses at get-go. Yous don't want to end up with a bunch that collaborate in unexpected ways and cause y'all to miss important notifications.
• Be careful with schedules and automations. An automation that invokes the Reading Focus when Books is open might piece of work well for reading before bed merely could exist problematic if you read while waiting for a meeting to start.
• It may be safest to allow silenced notifications to appear on the Lock screen and so you can hands see what y'all missed later on and adapt the Focus as necessary.
• You can manually invoke a Focus by tapping the Focus push in Command Middle and selecting the i you want. Tap the ••• button to the right of the Focus to specify when it should plow off automatically, or but tap the Focus over again to turn information technology off.
  

Newness bated, Focus looks similar it volition help u.s.a. all cutting down on distracting notifications. And if all else fails, stick with just Do Not Disturb, Driving, and Sleep to replicate what we had before.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Daisy-Daisy)

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Social Media: Do you want more command over Do Not Disturb on your Apple tree devices? How most muting notifications while a particular app is active or while you are at a certain location? All this and more is now piece of cake to prepare with Apple'due south new Focus feature—learn how at:

dwightforthown.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.mbsdirect.com/mbs-blog/article-applersquos-evolution-of-do-not-disturb-helps-you-focus

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