Do Not Disturb

One of the big safety features of iOS 11 is the new Do Not Disturb While Driving feature. When it’s on and set up, your iPhone won’t receive notifications while you’re driving unless you let it know you aren’t the person driving. It will also send automatic text replies to those who try to reach you to let them know that you’re driving and not available. And if it’s an urgent message, the person can reply "Urgent" and the text will go through. It’s a great feature for those who get distracted by their phone when driving. Here’s how to turn on Do Not Disturb While Driving with iOS 11 on the iPhone.

Have an individual contact that you want to put on silent for awhile? Maybe you’re on a date and don’t want to receive texts from that contact who likes to embarrass you in awkward situations. Or perhaps you’re in a meeting and don’t want to be disturbed by non-work related calls or texts while you’re at the office. Whatever the reason, you can turn on Do Not Disturb mode for individual contacts with iOS 10. This allows you to mute specific texts and calls that you don't want interrupting you. Here’s how to turn on Do Not Disturb for individual contacts on iPhone.

Need iPad and iPhone help? Sign up for iPhone Life Insider and I’ll help you with all of your iPhone troubleshooting and iOS-related issues. Here’s a question from an Insider who wants only certain contacts from their Favorites to be able to call them when do not disturb is on.

The Do Not Disturb function on iPhone allows you to silence all incoming calls, texts, and notifications. It’s a wonderful feature that makes it easy to step away from your iPhone. But you might have certain people who you want to be able to contact you no matter what. This might be your children or other important contacts. Luckily, in iOS 10 (available September 13) you can make certain people your emergency contacts. Doing so will allow them to bypass Do Not Disturb when it’s turned on so that you’ll still hear their incoming call or text. Here’s how to let emergency contacts reach you when Do Not Disturb is turned on.

The Do Not Disturb setting is pretty handy, especially when you’re at work or sleeping. This feature allows you to receive all your usual notifications, minus the disruptive sounds and vibrations that tend to come with them. But what if someone on your favorites list (like your brother, mom, best friend, etc.) has an emergency and can’t get ahold of you? Well, there’s an easy way to let their call pass through the Do Not Disturb barrier. Here’s how to let Favorites contact you when Do Not Disturb is turned on.

Receiving repeat calls from unknown numbers is just plain irritating. If you’re getting lots of unwanted calls, you can easily block the number or use a work around trick to block all calls that aren’t your contacts. We’ll cover both options. Here’s how to block unwanted calls on iPhone.