Focus mode on iPhone hides all notifications, calls, and ringtones and is available for Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, Work, Driving, and Fitness.
However, users often mistakenly activate Focus Mode which has caused considerable confusion over the years.
You can prevent this by disabling the ‘Share Across Devices’ toggle in your iPhone. Doing so will prevent the iPhone from sharing its Focus mode status with other paired Apple devices.
Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb on an iPhone is a feature that mutes all push notifications and inbound calls, allowing you to focus on work or sleep without being interrupted by incoming messages or phone calls. This frees up time for other activities without interruption from notifications or calls.
You can set Do Not Disturb to start automatically at a specific time each day, which can be especially helpful when traveling or working in an office where it may not be feasible to utilize the feature for most of the day.
When Do Not Disturb is enabled on a phone, the display will dim completely. This helps conserve battery power and you have the option of turning on Low Power Mode while Do Not Disturb is active.
iOS 15 introduces the Share Focus Status feature, enabling Do Not Disturb on one device and having it activated automatically across all other devices connected to your iCloud account. This is especially convenient if you have multiple devices and don’t want to have to worry about switching between them when using Do Not Disturb.
To enable Share Focus Status, open Settings > Focus. Tap + to create a custom focus type – there are suggestions like Gaming, Mindfulness, Personal and Work to get you started; alternatively you can design your own completely custom focus.
Next, you can decide who has permission to call you (such as Everyone or contacts and groups set up in the Contacts app) and whether repeat calls are permitted. Furthermore, you can allow certain time-sensitive notifications to pass through while in Focus mode.
Another way to prevent interruptions is by blocking notifications from specific apps. This can be done either from the Settings app or using DND (Do Not Disturb).
If you’re driving and can’t answer an incoming call, the app allows you to send a message letting the person know that you are unavailable at this time. This feature comes in handy if you use your car for commuting to and from work or school and cannot answer calls while in transit.
Personal
iOS 15 introduces Focus mode, a feature designed to make it easier to focus on your work. This mode enables you to silence notifications, select who you want able to contact or send alerts, and automatically turn on focus mode when you are busy.
One such feature is Share Focus Status, which lets applications like Messages display a status that states you have notifications silenced. This lets others know you’re focused on something so they don’t disturb you or ignore your messages when they don’t need to.
To share your Focus status on an iPhone or iPad, you first have to enable it in Settings on the device, then set up any applications and people who can use it. It doesn’t have to be a friend or family member – they could be work colleagues or business partners instead.
When configuring Focus modes, you have the option of setting a whitelist of people or apps that are allowed to access it. You can approve specific individuals or apps from this list and even create custom groups with limited access. Doing this prevents others from breaking into your Focus, though some developers take advantage of this feature by adding time sensitive notifications that cannot be ignored.
If your Focus modes are configured properly but you’re still receiving notifications while in Focus mode, there may be an underlying system bug or glitch. The most likely culprit is Apple’s Share Across Devices toggle which syncs Focus mode across all your devices.
If this applies to you, then you’ll want to disable this toggle and turn off Focus across all devices on your iPhone. To do this, open Settings > Focus in the upper right corner. Here you will see a Share across devices toggle that can be turned off – this ensures iCloud won’t share Focus mode with other connected devices anymore.
Sleep
If you are a smartphone addict like me, then you are familiar with iPhone Focus mode or its counterpart, Do Not Disturb. These useful features allow users to control incoming notifications in an unobtrusive way while they’re on-the-go or sleeping.
If not, a quick tour of the Settings app in iOS 15 and higher versions of Apple’s smartphone operating system will give you all of the essentials. There are plenty of options to choose from and it can be difficult to know which one best suits your needs.
In conclusion, the best approach is to discover what features your product or service offers and then build from there. It’s not uncommon to come across an overlooked gem that requires patience and some creativity in order to uncover.
To maximize this feature, you will need to understand some of the more technical aspects of iOS’s sleep functions and determine what works best for your individual needs. This may require some patience and some trial and error experiments in order to find what works best.
Driving
When driving with an iPhone, the last thing you want is to be bothered by phone calls or texts while behind the wheel. iOS offers a feature called Driving Focus that acts like Do Not Disturb mode and automatically turns off notifications and calls when connected to Apple CarPlay.
Driving Focus mode also enables you to set auto-reply notifications for favorite contacts or applications that can notify you if someone attempts to contact you while in the mode. Unfortunately, this feature may not be available for everyone.
As a general guideline, it is best to let your friends and family know that you have the Focus status turned on so they don’t disturb you when needed for focus. Once activated, a half-crescent moon icon will appear in your notification bar to indicate which Focus mode you are currently using (Do not disturb, sleep, work, personal).
To use focus mode on your iPhone, first enable it by opening Device Settings and tapping on the Focus tab. From there you can choose among modes (Do not disturb, sleep, work, and personal) as well as grant specific permission to each app or person that will notify you when they need to speak with you.
Once focus mode is enabled on an iDevice, it will also be shared with other Apple ID-associated devices if Apple’s Share across devices feature is enabled. This feature syncs the current focus mode across all associated iDevices.
Focus Mode makes this possible by connecting iDevices to each other within the Apple Ecosystem, keeping them always up-to-date and ready for use. This ensures your iDevices stay connected at all times, providing peace of mind when updating or using them.
If you want to utilize Focus mode on your iPhone but are unhappy with how it shares data with other iDevices, you can disable this feature by going to Settings > Focus and turning off Sharing Across Devices.
You can also remove the focus from your lock screen by long-pressing an empty area of your display. After a few seconds, a customization menu will appear; tap on that same focus again to unlink it from your lock screen.