How To Set Up “Do Not Disturb†On iOS.
If it’s 2am and you only have a few hours to get some sleep, there is nothing worse than someone trying to call you or ping you on a chat.
It may not be practical to turn off your phone or move it out of the room if you are using the phone as an alarm clock. So what do you do when someone wants to text you when you are trying to get the much needed ZZ?
On iPhone, the solution is Do Not Disturb.
iOS “Please do not disturb” setting
Do Not Disturb is an iOS and macOS feature that mutes all phone calls and notifications for a specified period. Do Not Disturb does not affect alarms, and you can specify whether someone is allowed to call, regardless of Do Not Disturb settings (such as your spouse or children).
To get started, you first need to go to your iOS settings and click on Do Not Disturb.
Then a number of options are presented, which we will consider in turn.
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- Do Not Disturb – You can use this switch to manually turn this feature on and off.
- Scheduled – If you want the same quiet hours every night (and you are forgetful of someone like me), you can set your phone to automatically turn Do Not Disturb on and off. When you enable this, you will be prompted to enter a start and end time.
A note on “Before bedtime”. Although Do Not Disturb disables all calls and notifications, they will still appear on your phone screen and light up. If your phone is next to your bed, that alone may be enough to wake you up.
When you enable Sleep Time, the screen remains dark and everything is redirected to the Action Center.
Now you need to determine how quiet you want to use your phone. “Always†is when you are lying in bed and looking at your phone (maybe you enjoy playing a game before bed?). While iPhone is Locked will only mute the sound when the phone is locked and not in use.
Do Not Disturb can really piss people off if they can’t get through. If this is your boss, do you care? But if it’s your spouse, kid, mom, or pizza delivery service, maybe you want to make some exceptions for them on your phone?
So in this section, you can tell who can get through. You can create a Favorites list (by going to the Favorites tab in your iOS contact book or iOS dialer), or say that a second call from the same person will be made within three minutes. But then it misses any constant pain in the ass. I prefer the “Favorites” option.
I do not use the last section, since I do not drive a car. But drivers will find this part invaluable as it is obviously not recommended (or legal) to drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
Do Not Disturb can be activated when the phone detects that you are driving. This happens when your speed increases and the phone thinks, “Aha! They must be in the car! “. You can also activate this manually if you do not want to automatically enter Do Not Disturb mode, for example, on a bus or train.
The answering machine will send an SMS message to the persons you specify if they try to contact you in Do Not Disturb mode. This printed message might look something like “On the way home, see you soon!” or “stuck in a traffic jam, I’ll call you back.”
Do Not Disturb helps us find some peace and privacy in our busy, hectic lives, and also helps us avoid people!
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