When people (usually on the internet) start start fighting a new front inthe iPhone versusAndroid wars, the latter seeminglyalways has a trump card in form of its ultra customizable Do Not Disturb mode—but no more. In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple has superchargedthe iPhone’s owndistraction-limiting capabilities in a major way by introducing “Focus”mode which you should start using immediately (your frazzled brain will thank you).
What is the Focus mode in iOS 15?
Do Not Disturb mode is now called Focus (of whichDo Not Disturb is now justa small part). Here’s what a Focus mode can do (Apple gives you some preset options, but you’re free to customizeyour ownmenu of featuresas well).
- Allow notifications only from certain people and apps: Do Not Disturb is no longer a black and white switch. You can select which people or apps to let through even when you’re in Focus mode.
- Time-sensitive notifications: Apple has created a new hierarchy of notifications, with time-sensitive notifications at the top. If Apple decides something is really important, it will automatically let it through your filters.
- Presets: There are presets for different parts of your day:work, personal time, workouts, and more. All triggered contextually, and preconfigured for you.
- Dynamic home screen: You can actually choose to only show particular home screen pages whenFocus mode is enabled.
- Cross-device sync: Focus mode syncs between iPhone, iPad, and Mac automatically (butdon’t worry—this can be disabled).
Finally, you can customize your iPhone’sDo Not Disturb mode
We’ll get to the other Focus modes, but first, let’s start with the canonical Do Not Disturb mode.
Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad, and go to the “Focus” section. Here, choose the “Do Not Disturb”选项。你会看到一个新的接口常规赛ng all aspects of the DND mode.
From the “Allowed Notifications” section, you can choose the people or apps that you want to let through. Choose the “People” option, tap the “Add” button, and then select the contacts who you always want to hear from, no matter what. You can do the same inthe “Apps” section. From there, you can also choose whether to allow time-sensitive notifications.
From the “Options” section, you can choose to define a Focus Status (which will be shared with your contactsin the Messages app). From the “Home Screen” section, you can choose to disable all notification badges (amercy), andenable the Custom Pages feature to hide specific home screen pages during a Focus.
The “Lock Screen” section will let you automaticallydim the lock screen while inFocus mode. You can also choose to see silenced notifications on the Lock Screen if you want.
And lastly, we come to the “Turn on Automatically” section. It seemsApple has integratedits Shortcuts Automation feature directly intoFocus mode.
You can choose the automate any Focus mode at a particular time, when you reach a particularlocation, or when you open a certainapp. What’s more, you can create multiple automations, for different timesor circumstances, all ofwhich will betriggered automatically.
This might seem like a lot of settings to mess around with, butyou don’t need to do more than pick one criteria to create an automated mode. But if you’re into it, you can tailorsome really specific,complex automations for a whole host of differentFocus modes.
How to enable a Focus mode
It’s probably most helpful toset up a Focus mode to trigger automatically (ascovered above), but you can also enable or disable a Focus mode manually使用控制中心或锁定屏幕。
Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open Control Center. Here, tap the “Focus” button to expand and see all your Focus modes (tapping the icon will enable the mostrecently used Focus). Choose a Focus mode to switch to it. You’ll now see the Focus icon in the status bar.
There’s also a new Focus indicator on the lock screen, right below the time. Tap and hold this indicator to switch to a different Focus mode, or to exitFocus mode altogether.
How tocreate acustom Focus mode
The real beauty of the Focus mode is how customizable it is. While Apple gives you preset modes, weencourage you to create a couple of your own custom Focus modes with their own names, icons, andsettings.
Apple has designed an intuitive step-by-step wizard for creating a custom Focus, so the process shouldn’tfeel overwhelming. To get started, go to the “Focus” section in “Settings,”tap thePlusbutton from the top, and choose the “Custom”选项。
Give the Focus a name, and follow the prompts from thewizard to customize it to fityour needs. Congratulations! Now your iPhone is... significantlylessdistracting, anyway.