How to Use iPhone Focus Mode to Receive Important Info Yet Skip Unwanted Notifications

Most people do not regularly turn off their cell phones at night because you never know when an emergency might come up with a friend or family member. Additionally, as more people shift away from traditional land lines, your cell phone may be the only way to get ahold of you in an emergency. Unfortunately, if your phone is on, you can also be reached by traditional auto-dialers, marketers, and other spam. This is unless you set your cell phone to use focus mode, which is a way to filter who can, and who cannot, reach you at certain times.

This post demonstrates how to set up and use focus mode on an iPhone so you can receive important information from people you have selected, all while skipping unwanted notifications.

How to Use iPhone Focus Mode to Receive Important Info Yet Skip Unwanted Notifications

Focus mode allows you to set up notification configurations for the following categories by default:

Do not disturb
Personal
Sleep
Work

You can also add additional focus configurations at any time.

To configure your iPhone to allow notification from certain people or applications, while filtering out others, you will need to configure one of the focus modes or create a new one.

To open focus mode, open Settings, then scroll about half way down and touch "Focus".

Open Settings, scroll down and touch "Focus" to configure it.

In the Focus menu, touch one of the available configuration types or touch the + button in the upper right corner to create a new focus type.

Edit an existing focus type or click the + sign to add a new focus type.

In this example, we will configure the Work focus mode.

In the Work Focus menu, touch "People" to add specific people who can reach you. Keep in mind, this would be people outside of the apps you select when configuring "Apps". For example, perhaps you want your family members to be able to message you via text, but otherwise do not plan to allow text messaging. This would be an appropriate use of adding people. On the other hand, if you plan to allow texting, then there would be no need to add them here. NOTE: You can also use this to do the opposite, meaning you can silence notifications from the people you choose rather than allowing notifications from the people you choose.

From within the focus type, touch "People" to allow or block specific people.

Add people from your contacts based on whether you are allowing or blocking them.

Scroll down to Phone Calls and choose to allow calls from everybody, allowed people only, favorites, or contacts only.

Use the pop-out menu to choose groups to allow calls from for the focus mode.

Lastly, you can choose to allow a repeated call to override other restrictions so it is not silenced. Enable or disable this feature as desired.
When all settings have been configured, touch the "Back" arrow at the top.

Toggle to allow repeated calls to override the focus settings if desired.

Toggle the green check mark next to each app based on if you have chosen to allow or block notifications from the selected apps.
Where necessary, touch the "+ Add Apps" button to add apps that are not already listed.

Toggle the green check mark for apps you want to allow notifications from or silence based on whether you have chosen to allow or block the selected apps.

Like the People settings, you can choose to set the apps you want to allow notifications from or which ones to silence. NOTE: Generally, you will want to pick whichever setting will require the least amount of items added to reduce setup time.
Scroll down and enable or disable the setting to allow time sensitive notifications to override the app restrictions. An example use of this could be to enable this so your calendar could provide notifications that were time sensitive even though it was otherwise silenced.

Toggle to allow time sensitive notifications from apps outside of the allowed list if desired.

Next you can choose a specific lock or home screen to use when you have this focus mode enabled. Touch either a lock or home screen to customize that screen.

Open the customize screens section to configure a special lock or home screen to the focus mode.

In the "Choose a Screen Menu", choose from your available screens or create a new one.

If desired, choose to create a custom home or lock screen for the focus mode.

Touch "Done" to save this setting.

Example of a unique focus mode lock screen set.

If desired, set a schedule for the focus mode by adding a schedule or setting a smart activation.

To enable a smart activation, or schedule, touch either of these links.

To set a schedule, touch "Add Schedule".
Choose to add a time-based, location-based, or app-based schedule.

Set the schedule for the days and times you want for the focus mode then touch "Done" to save the settings.

Set the appropriate parameters for the schedule, then touch "Done".

The schedule that has been set for this focus mode.

Lastly, add filters to apps to further restrict them if desired.

Touch "Add Filter" in the Focus filters section at the bottom.
Touch an app to restrict it even further. For example, you might want to filter out personal calendars or email.

Choose which accounts to filter out based on the setting you opened.

Select which items to allow in that app and then touch the "Add" button to add this filter.
Continue to add app filters as desired.

The accounts that are allowed through the email filter after being set for this focus mode.

Once everything has been configured for the focus mode you chose, simply close the Settings app. If you set a schedule, this will enable and disable based on that schedule. If you did not set a schedule, you can enable the focus mode at any time by swiping up from the bottom of the phone when it is locked or unlocked. Touch the focus button, then select the focus mode you set and want to enable. You can toggle this focus mode off at any time using the same method.

As always, knowing how to limit distractions saves time and helps you accomplish more of what you set out to do!