How to Enable and Use Do Not Disturb on Your iPhone/iPad

Do Not Disturb Cover

One of the most-loved features on iPhones and iPads is iOS’s “Do Not Disturb,” which basically silences your device and does not allow any call, message, notification, etc. to disturb you. All such notifications are prevented from disturbing you and will be routed directly to the Notification Centre instead of coming to your device’s screen. Do Not Disturb can be turned on and off very easily on your device.

How to Enable Do Not Disturb on Your iPhone / iPad

To enable Do Not Disturb on your device, simply follow the steps below:

1. Open your device’s Control Center. On iPhone X models or later, you can do this by swiping down from the top right of your screen. On previous iPhone models, this can be achieved by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

2. Tap on the Crescent / Moon button in the middle of the screen. It’ll become highlighted to indicate that Do Not Disturb mode has been enabled.

Do Not Disturb Enabled

3. Similarly, a Crescent icon will appear in your device’s status bar at the top of the screen.

Also read: How to Back Up Your iPhone Like a Pro

As described earlier, once this mode is enabled, you won’t receive any notifications. Yes, your phone will still receive phone calls, messages, updates, emails, etc., but they won’t be presented to you – they’ll just be displayed in your Notification Centre (if you have this option enabled).

Essentially, this means your phone will not ring, vibrate or chime to any incoming alert. You can still use your phone normally for sending messages, read alerts, checking social media, etc. This can be very useful, in the case that you want to relax for a bit without being disturbed. You can also choose to use this mode only while the device is locked, so that Do Not Disturb is temporarily disabled when your device is unlocked and you’re using it in your hand.

With that being said, Do Not Disturb can be customized a bit. To do this, open up the “Do Not Disturb” settings from “Settings -> Do Not Disturb”.

Do Not Disturb Option Settings

Here, if you plan on using Do Not Disturb frequently on your device, you can schedule it to automatically turn on and off at specified times. This can also be done from the Settings menu:

Do Not Disturb Scheduled

Similarly, you can set up an Emergency Bypass for some selected contacts in Do Not Disturb, which means they won’t be blocked if they call or message you. You can do this by marking a contact as a Favorite in the Phone app, and then enabling Favorites in the Do Not Disturb mode settings:

Do Not Disturb Settings

Another feature you can enable is “Repeated Calls”. This basically is when someone calls you more than once in a span of two minutes, his/her call will bypass the Do Not Disturb feature and show up on your screen. You can enable this for necessary calls/contacts (such as close family members) who you’d want to get through to you no matter what or if someone tries to call you repeatedly in an emergency.

Also read: How to Schedule Sending Text Messages on Your iPhone

If you’re using a device that has 3D Touch enabled, you can easily do a long tap on the Do Not Disturb icon in the Control Centre to bring up quick scheduling options, which include the option to keep Do Not Disturb enabled until you leave your location.

Do Not Disturb 3d Touch

Another feature that might be useful to you is Do Not Disturb while Driving which does the same function when your phone detects you’re in a car.

To disable Do Not Disturb after use, simply open up Control Centre and tap on the crescent icon to unhighlight it, and it’ll be disabled. You will now receive all notifications / phone calls as you normally would.

Did you find this guide interesting? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.

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Shujaa Imran

Shujaa Imran is MakeTechEasier's resident Mac tutorial writer. He's currently training to follow his other passion become a commercial pilot. You can check his content out on Youtube