Interrupted by Messages, WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, Mail, and other app notifications during Do Not Disturb? In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to stop text and app notifications when your iPhone is in DND Focus mode.
Why does it happen?
Some people and apps are important, and you might want calls, texts, and notifications from them to bypass Do Not Disturb (DND) and alert you even when your iPhone is in DND mode. So, if you’re getting notifications during DND, that’s because you or someone with access to your iPhone has added that app or contact as an exception.
Another reason for this is that you have let Apple Intelligence figure out which calls, texts, and app notifications are important, and therefore it’s overriding DND just for those alerts.
Related: 8 solutions to stop getting calls during Do Not Disturb or Focus mode on iPhone
1. Clear allowed apps for Do Not Disturb
Follow these steps to remove app exceptions from DND:
1) Open iPhone Settings and tap Focus.
2) Select Do Not Disturb.
3) Do you see some app icons under the Allowed Notifications section? If yes, tap Apps.
4) Tap the minus button (-) for all desired apps.
The above steps ensure that no apps are added as exceptions to Do Not Disturb. This means that next time your iPhone is in DND mode, the removed apps will no longer notify you.
2. Disable Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing
Apple Intelligence on iPhone 16, 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 15 Pro can automatically figure out which alerts are important and which ones aren’t. As a result, when the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch is enabled, you may get some calls, texts, and notifications even when Do Not Disturb is activated.
You can stop this by going to iPhone Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and turning off the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch from the top.
Note that you won’t see this option if your iPhone does not support Apple Intelligence.
3. Turn off Time Sensitive notifications
Notifications marked as Time Sensitive are critical and need your immediate attention. If the Time Sensitive toggle is enabled, then apps that aren’t even added to the Allowed Notifications list can send Time Sensitive alerts.
If you don’t want any app notifications during Do Not Disturb, you should also block Time Sensitive notifications.
1) Open Settings and go to Focus > Do Not Disturb.
2) Select Apps under Allowed Notifications.
3) Toggle off Time Sensitive.
4. Make sure DND Focus is enabled
After following the above two fixes, if you still get calls during Do Not Disturb, take a moment to make sure Do Not Disturb is actually enabled. The easiest way to do that is by going to your iPhone’s Control Center and tapping the crescent moon icon. You can also tap Focus and select Do Not Disturb.
Apart from Control Center, you can ask Siri to enable Do Not Disturb.
5. Don’t turn off DND on your other Apple device(s)
Focus is shared across your Apple devices. That means if you enable Do Not Disturb on your iPhone, it’s enabled on your other devices like Mac or iPad.
To address this, you have two options:
- Do not turn off Do Not Disturb on your other Apple devices.
- Or, go to iPhone Settings > Focus and toggle off Share Across Devices. From now on, even if you activate or deactivate a Focus mode like Do Not Disturb on one of your Apple devices, it won’t affect the Focus status on this iPhone.
6. Other fixes
By now, you should no longer get bothered by text or app notifications during Do Not Disturb. However, to ensure a perfect experience or if you still get notifications, do the following:
- Restart your iPhone. Make it a habit to do so at regular intervals, like once every 3 days or so.
- Go to iPhone Settings > General > Software Update and get the latest version of iOS.
- Finally, if nothing helps and incoming notifications don’t stop during Do Not Disturb, go ahead and reset all iPhone settings.
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