Avoid Distractions: How to Silence iPhone Notifications With Focus in iOS 16

You're trying to work (or play) on your iPhone and don't want to be bothered by phone calls, text messages, or other interruptions. One feature that can help is Focus.

Introduced in iOS 15 as an update to "Do Not Disturb," Focus has been enhanced in iOS 16 to make it more powerful and easier to use.

To take advantage of the newest flavor of Focus, you must be running iOS 16, which rolled out Sept. 12. After the update, go to Settings > Focus. By default, the screen displays a few Focus profiles. They vary based on whether you’re using an iPhone or iPad but typically include Do Not Disturb, Driving, Personal, Sleep, and Work. Each profile is designed for a different purpose, activity, or time of day. Your task now is to customize the profiles you plan to use, a process that’s different and more streamlined in iOS 16 than in iOS 15.

Allow or Block Notifications

Select the option for Do Not Disturb, which you can use as an overall Focus profile any time you want. Under Allow Notifications, select the people and apps for which you want to allow or disallow notifications. Select the field for People. Focus suggests people for whom you want to allow notifications based on your past interactions. Tap the minus sign next to any suggestion for whom you want to block notifications while this profile is active. Tap the plus icon and select anyone for whom you want to allow notifications.

Allow or Silence Calls

Under Phone Calls, tap the current option for Allow Calls From; you can then change it to Everybody, Allowed People Only, Favorites, or Contacts Only. Toggle Allow Repeated Calls to on, with the notion that someone trying to reach you during an emergency may call multiple times.

Next, tap the option at the top for Silence Notifications From. Tap the plus icon and select anyone for whom you want to silence notifications. Note that this process won’t work unless the people you silence are also running iOS 16 (or iPadOS 16) on their devices. Next, turn on the switch for Allow Calls From Silenced People if you still want to accept phone calls from the people you blocked this way.

Allow or Silence App Notifications

Return to the previous screen. Tap the field for Apps. The process here is similar to that of People. With the top option set to Allow Notifications From, remove any listed apps for which you don’t want to receive notifications. Tap the plus icon and select any apps for which you do want to receive notifications.

Change the top option to Silence Notifications From. Tap the plus icon to add any apps for which you don’t want to receive notifications. To see important notifications, make sure the switch is on for Time Sensitive Notifications.

Show Silenced Notifications on the Lock Screen

Return to the previous screen. Tap the entry for Options. Here, you can opt to show silenced notifications on the Lock Screen instead of in the Notification Center, dim the Lock Screen when this Focus profile is on, and hide notification badges of silenced apps on your Home screen.

Go back a screen. Next, you’re able to set up specific Lock Screens and Home screens to help in your effort to turn off notifications. Apple's iOS 16 offers ways to create and edit customized Lock Screens, something you may want to try in addition to enabling different Focus profiles. At the Customize Screens section, tap the first thumbnail. Select a Lock Screen that you’d like to appear when you turn on Do Not Disturb profile. Next, tap the second thumbnail and choose the Home screen that you want to appear when in Do Not Disturb mode.

Schedule Notifications

You can manually turn on Do Not Disturb mode whenever you’d like. But you also may want to schedule certain times or instances when it goes into effect.

At the section for Turn On Automatically, tap the option for Add Schedule. Select the first option for Time and choose a specific start time, end time, and day or days when Do Not Disturb automatically goes on. Next, select Location and enter an address or location for this profile to go on. Next, select App and pick a specific app that, when opened, automatically turns on Do Not Disturb. You can also enable Smart Activity, which turns on Do Not Disturb based on your location, app usage, and other factors.

Add Focus Filters for Apps

Apple's iOS 16 also offers a new Focus option called Focus Filters, which lets you filter out specific types of content within supported apps. For example, you may want to receive text messages just from certain people or view only certain calendars if you have more than one.

Tap the option for Add Filter. Select the app for which you want to create a filter. With Calendar, choose a specific calendar to view when Do Not Disturb is on and tap Add. With Mail, choose a specific account to view. With Messages, opt to filter the allowed list by people. For Safari, choose certain tab groups for which to add a filter.

Recommended by Our Editors

Make It Yours: How to Edit the Lock Screen on Your iPhone or iPad

Erase Embarrassing Typos: How to Edit, Unsend Texts on Your iPhone

Time to Take Your Meds: How to Manage Medications With Your iPhone

You can also enable system filters for Appearance (light versus dark mode) and Low Power Mode. The filters were rather limited in the beta of iOS 16 but should increase in number after the new OS officially rolls out.

Customize or Create New Profiles

After setting up your Do Not Disturb profile, you can turn to any other profiles you’d like to enable, including Driving, Personal, Sleep, and Work. They all operate similarly with all or most of the same options. You can also delete a specific profile that you would never use. To do so, swipe to the bottom of the screen for that profile and tap the option for Delete Focus.

Further, you’re able to add a Focus. Tap the plus icon in the upper right of the main Focus settings screen. From the list, select Fitness, Gaming, Mindfulness, or Reading. Select the profile you wish to enable and customize the allowed people, apps, screens, filters, and other options.

To create a brand-new profile, select Custom. Name the Focus profile and choose an image and color for its icon. Customize the people, apps, and other settings.

Back at the Focus Settings screen, turn on the switch for Share Across Devices if you want the same Focus profiles and settings to propagate across all your Apple devices, including an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. Tap the option for Focus Status. Here, you can control which Focus profiles will let allowed apps indicate that you’ve silenced notifications.

Finally, you can easily turn on a specific Focus profile. Swipe up or down on the screen to display Control Center. Tap the control for Focus and then select the specific profile you want to activate. Tap the ellipsis icon for the profile to set how long it should run. Tap the New Focus icon at the bottom to create a new Focus profile.