Have you ever seen a small message at the bottom of your iMessage chat saying that your contact has “muted notifications?” This is the focus status, and they use Apple’s updated Do Not Disturb function for iOS 15 and later.
iPhones can often be distracting in situations like driving, but the focus status is a safety improvement that prevents texting while behind the wheel. Whether you’re looking for better safety features or a way to limit screen time during work, here’s how you can use and customize focus status.
What is Share Focus Status?
“Share Focus Status” is a function on Apple devices that lets people know you’ve muted your notifications when they’re messaging you.
Here’s how to share your focus status:
- Go to settings, then Focus
- Select “Focus Mode”
- Switch “Share Focus Status” on
From here, you can choose which focus settings you want to share, such as drive, sleep and Do Not Disturb.
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How to turn on focus
Turn on focus by opening the control center on your iPhone or device. To open the control center, swipe down from the top right corner of your screen. You can close it from swiping up from the bottom of the screen or by simply tapping on your screen.
For iPhone SE and iPhone 8 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom of your screen to open the control center.
In the control center, you should see a bar on the left side that says “Focus” with a moon icon. Tapping the icon turns on focus mode, and tapping the word “Focus” opens the options menu.
How to customize the focus
Apple’s settings also allow customization based on the focus factor. You can choose from a variety of options, including work, sleep, drive, play, mindfulness, fitness or even reading. You can also create your own focus mode based on your unique needs.
To customize, select “Focus” under settings and click one of the options listed, or tap the plus sign in the upper left corner to create a new focus. From there, you can choose the people and apps to allow notifications from or those you want to mute. You can also customize your lock screen and home screen appearance when the focus is on.
You can customize the time your focus will stay on and you can set up a regular time for it to turn on automatically. Apple also lets you turn on filters for apps, where you can choose what the app shows you when you’re in focus mode. For example, filtering messages will only show you conversations from people under your “allow notifications from” list.
Here are some helpful ways to customize focus:
- Personal: Silence notifications from work-related apps during non-work time
- Occupation: Only allow notifications from emergency contacts and work-related apps when you’re on the clock
- Sleep: Silence notifications from contacts and apps and change your appearance from light to dark by customizing focus filters
- Fitness: Automatically turn on your focus when you start a workout and filter notifications from any workout apps
- Driving: Try turning on auto-reply messages when you’re on the road. The default from Apple is “I’m driving with Focus on. I’ll see your message when I get to my destination.” You can also choose to send this auto-reply to recent contacts, favorites or all contacts.
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