Allow or silence notifications for a Focus on iPhone

When you set up a Focus, you can select people and apps you want to receive notifications from by either silencing them or allowing them. For example, set up a Work Focus and allow only notifications from your coworkers and the apps you use for work.

Allow or silence notifications from specific people during a Focus

Go to Settings > Focus, then choose a Focus—for example, Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, or Work.
Tap People (or tap Choose People), then do one of the following:
- Allow specific people: Tap Allow Notifications From, tap , then select from your contacts.
  You can also turn on options to allow calls from certain groups of people and allow repeated calls (two or more calls from the same person within 3 minutes).
- Silence specific people: Tap Silence Notifications From, tap , then select from your contacts.
  You can also turn on Allow Calls From Silenced People.

Note: Regardless of your Focus settings, you can allow calls from your emergency contacts to come through. See Allow calls from emergency contacts when notifications are silenced, below.

When Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing is on, Apple Intelligence* allows important notifications to interrupt you and silences notifications determined not to be important. See Summarize notifications and reduce interruptions with Apple Intelligence.

Allow or silence notifications from specific apps during a Focus

Go to Settings > Focus, then choose a Focus—for example, Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, or Work.
Tap Apps (or tap Choose Apps), then do one of the following:
- Allow specific apps: Tap Allow Notifications From, tap , then select apps.
- Silence specific apps: Tap Silence Notifications From, tap , then select apps.
Note: You can allow or silence notifications from specific web apps you’ve added to your Home Screen. (See Add a website icon to your Home Screen.)

You can also turn on Time Sensitive Notifications, which allows all apps to send time-sensitive notifications immediately.

Choose whether to share your Focus status

When you use a Focus and have your focus status turned on, people who try to contact you (using Messages, for example) may see that you have “notifications silenced.” You can turn this on or off.

Go to the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap Focus, then tap Focus Status.
Turn Share Focus Status on or off.
If you turn it on, choose which Focus profiles can share that you have notifications silenced.

Allow calls from emergency contacts when notifications are silenced

You can allow sounds and vibrations from emergency contacts to come through even when your iPhone or notifications are silenced.

Open Contacts .
Select a contact, then tap Edit.
Tap Ringtone or Text Tone, then turn on Emergency Bypass.
Or set up your Medical ID and identify an emergency contact.

Helpful?

iPhone User Guide

Allow or silence notifications for a Focus on iPhone

Allow or silence notifications from specific people during a Focus

Allow or silence notifications from specific apps during a Focus

Choose whether to share your Focus status

Allow calls from emergency contacts when notifications are silenced