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Have you ever been woken in the middle of the night by your phone ringing, chirping, buzzing or beeping? Our phones make for handy alarm clocks to wake us in the morning but when we keep them by our beds at night we risk getting calls, texts, notifications and other interruptions of our precious sleep. You could power off your phone but then the alarm wouldn’t work.
Do Not Disturb is a feature on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that’s a smart way to silence your device. By using Do Not Disturb you can keep your phone quiet while easily controlling who can contact you. Do Not Disturb was introduced in iOS 6 and got more features in iOS 7.
Also see => How to Schedule “Do Not Disturb” To Turn Off When You Leave a Location
What Is Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb lets you silence calls, text messages, alerts and notifications. Your phone will stay silent and dark when Do Not Disturb is activated. You won’t have to worry about being notified that your opponent in Words with Friends is nudging you but you still can receive important calls.
With Do Not Disturb you have control over which calls can ring even when the feature is activated:
- You can allow calls to come through from certain people in your Contacts list
- You can allow calls to come through if someone calls you more than once within three minutes.
⇒ Alarms will still work when Do Not Disturb is active.
You can schedule Do Not Disturb to turn on at the same time each day and then turn off later. Set Do Not Disturb to activate each night at bedtime for peaceful sleep and turn on again when you wake up. Your phone will stay silent and dark until morning, but you can still wake to your alarm and get calls from VIP’s and in case of an emergency.
How to Turn On Do Not Disturb
You can turn Do Not Disturb on and off from Settings and Control Panel.
⇒ When Do Not Disturb is active, a quarter moon will appear at the top of your screen.
Settings
To turn on Do Not Disturb in Settings, go to:
Settings => Do Not Disturb
You can activate Do Not Disturb by swiping the Manual switch to the right.
Control Center
For a handy way to turn Do Not Disturb on and off, use Control Center.
Swipe up from the bottom of your screen to reveal Control Center => Tap the Quarter Moon icon.
[note]For more information about Control Center, check out 13 Super Shortcuts for Your iPhone – in Control Center [/note]
How to Set Up Do Not Disturb
You can customize Do Not Disturb to make it work best for you, including scheduling times for it to turn on and off and controlling who can call you when it’s on.
Schedule Do Not Disturb
Set a schedule to silence your phone every day. Slide the Schedule switch to the right, then choose the times to turn Do Not Disturb on and off each day.
Note that there is currently no way to choose unique times for different days of the week.
Filter Who Can Reach You When Do Not Disturb Is On
Do Not Disturb has a big advantage over muting, powering off your phone, or putting it in airplane mode — you can control who can call you and get through when Do Not Disturb is on.
1. You can choose which people in your Contacts list can reach you even when Do Not Disturb is on. In Settings => Do Not Disturb => Allow Calls From
You can choose to allow calls to ring from:
- Everyone
- No One
- Favorites
- Groups of Contacts
2. You can choose whether people who call repeatedly in a short time can get through with Do Not Disturb. Go to Settings => Do Not Disturb => Repeated Calls => On
With this option, someone who calls you twice from the same number within three minutes will ring through, even if Do Not Disturb is on and even if that number is not in your Contact list.
This can be handy in case of emergencies, though not so much if you have a pesky neighbor who really wants to borrow your chain saw NOW.
Always On vs. On When Locked
You can also set whether Do Not Disturb is active constantly or only when you’ve locked your phone.
Go to Settings => Do Not Disturb => Silence
Choose from:
- Always
- Only when iPhone is locked
When to Use Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb can be very handy when you schedule it to go on each night and off in the morning. You can also use it if you need to focus when you’re working or driving. Use it when you’re going to an important meeting to make sure you’re not interrupted unless the boss calls or your wife goes into labor. Enjoy a more relaxing vacation away from constant contact without worrying about missing very important calls.
Don’t Forget to Turn Do Not Disturb Off
If you forget to turn off Do Not Disturb you may be missing phone calls, text messages, alerts and notifications. One Wonder of Tech reader accidentally had Do Not Disturb turned on for months without realizing it. She wondered why her phone wouldn’t ring and she would only get voice mail messages until she noticed the quarter moon on the top of her screen.
If you have a daily schedule of turning Do Not Disturb on and off, you don’t have to worry about this issue. When you turn on Do Not Disturb manually, it will turn off at the regularly scheduled time to turn off.
⇒ Also see, How to Silence Your Phone for more options to keep your phone quiet.
Ideas to Improve Do Not Disturb
Once you start using Do Not Disturb, you may quickly become a fan of the feature. You may also wish for some improvements in future updates.
I would like to see the ability to schedule different times for different days, especially on weekends. A timer that turns off Do Not Disturb after so many minutes or hours would be helpful.
Integrating Do Not Disturb into your calendar would be useful. Imagine clicking a box when you scheduled an appointment that would turn on Do Not Disturb during that time. Very handy.
It would be great to have Do Not Disturb activated by location. You could set Do Not Disturb to turn on when you get to the office, school, church, gym or other place where you don’t want to be bothered.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever used Do Not Disturb? Have you ever wished you had a way to block calls and other notifications while allowing important calls through? Have you ever missed an important call when you muted your phone? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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iTunes Extras
If your summer plans include staying inside in the coolness of your home and catching up on favorite flicks, you’ll be excited to learn about a new feature from Apple: iTunes Extras. When you purchase a movie on iTunes that has iTunes Extras enabled, you will get extra content with no extra charge.
From Apple, examples of extra content include:
- ‘Scenes’: highlights the most compelling moments in an iTunes movie
- And unique to iTunes, the content is organized by themes / categories that mirror how a customer may want to relive the film whether it be the show-stopping sing-along musical numbers of Frozen or Walter’s globetrotting fantasy interludes in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
- Deleted and alternate movie clips
- Short films
- Art and still photography galleries offering a stunning HD look into the aesthetic of various films
- IncludingThe Grand Budapest Hotel, the conceptual drawings that inspired Monsters University, sketches from the making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and the behind-the-scenes energy of the performances bringing The LEGO Movie’s characters to life, among many others.
- Cast, crew, and character information: offers actors’ perspectives on their roles in a film, as well as highlighting their related work available on iTunes.
Movies you purchase on iTunes can be updated by studios automatically to include iTunes Extras.
iTunes Extras is now available on Apple TV, Mac and PC and will be coming to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the fall with iOS 8.
Thanks for this great article Carolyn. This is very helpful and useful for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users. It’s a brilliant idea. I never know this feature until today. Thanks to you for making this article for us. I will definitely use this one and share this information to my family and friends. Very informative, I’ll definitely give these 5 stars.
Hi Alexis, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, Do Not Disturb can be very useful to silence your phone while still allowing some calls to come through.
I’m so glad you found this article helpful. Thanks for taking the time to let us know!
HI Carolyn,
That sounds interesting 🙂
I think we would all love to have the Do Not Disturb feature enabled on our phones, especially when you have the choice to use it as per your will and turn it off and on.
All we can presently do our end is have this feature, but that is only to stop the company or brands from sending us useless messages, nothing else. And you need to dial a certain number and ask for enabling this feature. Definitely worth checking out. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, this is a very useful, free feature for the iPhone. You can block calls and notifications while still allowing important calls to come through. I also like that you can schedule it to turn on and off each day.
Definitely give Do Not Disturb a try to see if you like using it, Harleena.
Well, I haven’t used it because I totally shut my phone down at night. However, we still have a land line and if somebody needs us bad enough then they can call that. Maybe I will give this a try though…good stuff.
Have you tried out any new cool stuff lately. I saw someone taking pictures w/ their ‘mind’ while wearing Google glasses.
I hope your summer is going well; hot as all get out down here in the F L A.
Hi Bill, Yes you can power down your phone each night, but by scheduling Do Not Disturb you can save a lot of time and have two fewer things to worry about each day (powering your phone on and off). Give Do Not Disturb a try and see if you like it. If not, you can always go back to powering your phone on and off!
I love trying out new tech, though I haven’t tried Google Glass yet. I’d be a little hesitant about letting Google into my mind though!
The summer has been busy here, not too hot but some very violent storms have come through. We’ve had a record eight weekends in a row with beautiful weather — high in the 80’s, no rain, low humidity. We’re getting very spoiled!
I would like to receive texts from favorites or at least 1 person. My fiancé is a detective and it’s easier for him to text if there is something he needs me to know, but when I am on DND, I don’t hear his texts come through.
Hi Angie, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Good point, as of now, Do Not Disturb only lets through phone calls of people you filter. You have a great idea to use the filter for text messages too. I hope that feature comes in a future update to Do Not Disturb.
I’ve been using Do Not Disturb for quite some time and love it. It’s a great way to make sure only the important calls get through and avoid telemarketers.
Hi Erica, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I hadn’t thought about using Do Not Disturb to block telemarketers. You could allow for all of your contacts to get through but nobody else. Brilliant. You wouldn’t get notifications and alerts for other apps or text messages but many people don’t care about those anyway.
Hi Carolyn
This is something I did not know I had on my phone.
Although I must say I am not one to explore that much when I have and use the things I need.
I do like the new control center and other easy access to common functions – all the modes and player etc. That is a great feature too.
But having people all around the world with my phone number, I might just be using this do not disturb sooner than you think :>
have a great week
ashley
Hi Ashley, Yes, Do Not Disturb is a very handy feature and I’ve found quite a few people who didn’t know they had it which is why I thought this topic would be helpful at The Wonder of Tech. Judging from the heavy traffic this article has received, I know you’re not the only one who didn’t know about Do Not Disturb on your iPhone.
I hope you enjoy your peace and quiet, Ashley!
Hi Carolyn,
You just made me happy.:)
I a great admirer of iPhones and try to know more and more about them.
With this post I can know how to get rid of those annoying calls and messages in the middle of night. Every person would have faced this frustrating situation. Inmost of mobile phones we need to talk to customer care or to message them to activate don’t disturb service.
Apple is the only company which is providing this service inbuilt. May be it is in some other mobile phone but I haven’t seen any.
Thanks for the wonderful information.:)
Have a good day.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, Yes, getting a good night sleep is priceless and Do Not Disturb can help you get that every night without you having to remember to turn it on each time. Very handy!
Android has several Do Not Disturb apps plus Android L is supposed to have that feature built in.
Really amazing feature, this feature will ensure that you get all the important calls, notifications and avoid all unnecessary calls. Although I don’t have Iphone so I won’t be able to use it. 🙁
Hi Pankaj, Yes, this is for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Android has several apps available that have similar features.
Hi Carolyn,
I agree with you. I would love to have the ability to set different times for different days and calendar integration. Of course, the only way to not be disturbed altogether is to shut the iPhone off, but that is not always feasible, especially with sick family members or friends.
Kind Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill, Yes, I wrote an article a while back about How to Silence Your Phone. You’re right, the best way to completely silence your phone is to turn it completely off. But if you’re expecting important calls or need to be available, powering off your phone may not be an option. Do Not Disturb can help keep your phone quiet while still keeping you in touch with VIP’s.
Hi Carolyn,
Did you say that “Do Not Disturb” feature is on iPhone 6? I believe I have this feature now on iPhone 5. I am using it now. I set it to “do not disturb me” feature from 10AM to 10PM. And so far it works. could it be that this is an upgrade one? I like the part where I can still receive IMPORTANT calls even if I have set it on do not disturb.
Angela
Hi Angela, I said that Do Not Disturb was introduced in iOS 6 and got additional features in iOS 7. iOS is the operating system that runs on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Each year iOS is updated by Apple to add new features. iOS 6 launched in the fall of 2012.
Sorry for the confusion. Yes, any iPhone running iOS 6 or later has Do Not Disturb.
Sorry, Carolyn, I misunderstood. I’m on iOS 7 now. I always update it. So guess the “Do Not Disturb” feature is ready to go on my iPhone. So yay!!!!
Angela
You’re exactly right, Angela. Your iPhone 5 is all set to go with Do Not Disturb! I’m glad you’re on iOS 7 because that means you can activate and deactivate Do Not Disturb from Control Center, which is very, very handy.
Hey Carolyn,
I should have known that they had this feature on my phone. The few times I should have used this all I did was go put my phone in the other room just in case it rang. It usually doesn’t because most people call me on my home phone but I’ve had some wrong numbers right in the middle of shooting a video so that’s never fun.
Thank you for sharing this and exactly what to do. Not that I really need it but it’s still good to know. 😉
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, now that you know about Do Not Disturb you may find yourself using it more than you think. Just swipe up from the bottom of your screen to open Control Center and then tap the quarter moon symbol. Voila! Do Not Disturb is on. 🙂
Wonderful feature! I already love it and will start using today. It’s so great you can now decide who can call you at nigh – because turning off all callls is often not an option if you worry for family member,s but to hear stupid advertising or polls calls in the middle of the night or even at 8 am in the Sunday morning is more than irritating.
Hi Victoria, Yes, the automatic scheduling feature is very handy for Do Not Disturb. You can set it to turn on at night and off in the morning every day.
You’re right about those solicitation calls. They’re annoying enough, but when they wake you up they’re even worse!
I’m definitely going to start using this feature! How have I not used this yet?
Hi Joel, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You probably haven’t used Do Not Disturb because you didn’t know about it or didn’t really think about it. But I’m glad you’re going to be using it now! :-bd