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<\/p>\nWe love the Do Not Disturb feature in iOS\u2014it\u2019s essential for keeping notifications from waking us up at night or causing embarrassing light and noise in dark movie theater. But it\u2019s long had a problem. When you invoked Do Not Disturb manually for a movie or doctor\u2019s appointment, you had to remember to turn it off manually when you were done, or risk missing important notifications. No more!<\/p>\n
In iOS 12, Apple enhanced Do Not Disturb in two ways: enabling it to disable itself automatically after a certain amount of time or when your location changes and adding a Bedtime mode that holds all notifications until you wake up.<\/p>\n
In previous versions of iOS, you invoked Do Not Disturb manually by tapping its button in Control Center. However, if you forgot to turn it off after your meeting, say, it would stay on forever unless you had a Do Not Disturb schedule set, and even then, not until the end of that schedule. So if you forgot to turn Do Not Disturb off after a 10 AM meeting, it could stay on until the next morning or until you realized you weren\u2019t getting any calls or messages.<\/p>\n
If you start Do Not Disturb sessions in the same way in iOS 12, they\u2019ll act the same way. But if you force-touch or press and hold the Do Not Disturb button in Control Center, that brings up the Do Not Disturb card with five options:<\/p>\n
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While Do Not Disturb is on, iOS 12 puts a notification on the Lock screen telling you when it will turn itself off. At any time before then, you can tap the Lock screen notification to allow calls and notifications again.<\/p>\n
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In Settings > Do Not Disturb, you\u2019ll find a new Bedtime switch. When enabled during the times for which you\u2019ve scheduled Do Not Disturb, it dims and blacks out the Lock screen, silences calls, and sends all notifications to Notification Center instead of showing them on the Lock screen.<\/p>\n
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The idea behind the Bedtime switch is that it reduces the chances that glancing at your iPhone in the middle of the night to see what time it is will shock your eyes or engage your brain. Sleep is good! But if you get up early and want to allow notifications through again, tap the Do Not Disturb notification on the Lock screen to turn it off.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not all you can do with Do Not Disturb During Bedtime. You might know that there\u2019s a Bedtime screen in the Clock app that\u2019s designed to help you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. If you use it to set your desired sleep schedule and enable the Do Not Disturb During Bedtime switch in Clock > Bedtime > Options, you get another<\/i> Do Not Disturb schedule.<\/p>\n
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That could be extremely welcome if, for instance, you want Do Not Disturb on automatically both at night when you\u2019re sleeping and also during a regularly scheduled class or meeting.<\/p>\n
Give these new Do Not Disturb options a try! They go a long way toward ensuring that our iPhones fit into our lives better, rather than forcing us to pay attention to every last alert or message.<\/p>\n