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Settingly

Notifications and Focus

Focus

Most people call this different notification rules for different parts of your day.

A Focus is a named set of rules deciding who and what can reach you, and it can change your Home Screen and Lock Screen at the same time.

Available

This setting is present on your iPhone.

  • We have this path on file but have not yet confirmed it against an official source.

Where to find it - iOS 15 and later

  1. Settings
  2. Focus

What it does

Do Not Disturb is one Focus among several. Each has its own allowed people, allowed apps, schedule and optional Focus Filters that change what apps show while it is active.

A Focus can sync to your other Apple devices so silencing the phone silences everything.

What changes

When it is on

Only the people and apps you allow get through. Others are held.

When it is off

Every notification arrives normally.

Should you turn it on?

Good reasons to turn it on

  • You choose exactly who can reach you rather than silencing everyone.
  • Schedules mean it happens without you remembering.
  • It can hide distracting Home Screen pages at the same time.

Good reasons to turn it off

  • Setting it up properly takes half an hour.
  • A misconfigured Focus silences people you needed to hear from.
  • Time Sensitive notifications still leak unless you also control those.

Battery

Helps

Privacy

No real change

Performance

No real change

Cellular data

No real change

Storage

No real change

Out of the box: Do Not Disturb, Sleep, Personal and Work are offered. None are active until you set them up.

Worth reading first

Where this setting used to live

Apple moves settings between releases. This is every location we have on file.

  1. iOS 15 and later

    Settings > Focus

  2. iOS 12 to iOS 14

    Settings > Do Not Disturb

Questions people actually ask

Why am I not getting notifications?
A Focus is probably still on. Check Control Centre, where the active Focus is shown.
What is the difference between Do Not Disturb and Focus?
Do Not Disturb is one Focus. The system lets you create others with different rules.

If it is not working

  • If messages are missing, check whether a Focus is still active. The Lock Screen shows the Focus name.
  • Repeated calls from the same number within three minutes can be allowed through.
  • Share Across Devices means enabling a Focus on the phone also silences a Mac or iPad.

Related settings