My Favorite Apple Intelligence Feature Is Notification Management
iOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 introduce a new focus mode called Interruption Reduction, which lets you use Apple Intelligence to reduce distractions without completely turning off notifications. This has been a lifesaver for my workflow because it allows me to focus on writing, but still shows me any urgent updates that I might need to see right away. If you have an Apple Intelligence- enabled device, like the iPhone 15 Pro or later, here’s how to customize this focus mode to your liking.
How to enable Reduce Interruption focus mode
To get started, on iPhone, go to Settings > Focus > Reduce Interruption . Scroll down to set up a schedule or trigger for this focus mode. I prefer to turn it on automatically during business hours on weekdays, but you can set it up to suit your needs. (Alternatively, you can turn it on manually using the Focus Mode control in Control Center.)
If you’re using a Mac, you’ll find this menu under System Preferences > Focus > Reduce Interruptions .
Customize break reduction to your liking
The Interruption Reduction feature automatically enables Apple Intelligence’s Intelligent Breakthrough and Silence feature (I don’t even have an option to turn it off here), which Apple’s AI uses to decide which notifications are important and which aren’t. This is a great way to ping less, but as with all things AI, success is not guaranteed.
That’s why you can also spend a few minutes setting this focus mode manually to help the AI out a bit. Go to Settings > Focus > Reduce Distractions and select Options . You can now control which notifications you see when this AI-replaced focus mode is enabled. I’ve enabled everything on this page and set it to turn off notifications when my iPhone is locked. This way, all notification icons will be hidden, alerts will be sent to the lock screen, and the lock screen itself will also be dimmed. You can also go back one page and choose how you want the Home screen and Lock screen to look when Reduce interruptions is enabled.
Once that’s done, we’ll come to the final step: deciding which apps and people are allowed to send alerts. Use this to always see messages from a specific app or person while this mode is active. Select People to control which of your contacts can contact you when Reduce Interruptions is turned on. Then go to the Apps tab and select the apps you want to allow to receive notifications from when you’re in this focus mode. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve configured it to let time-sensitive notifications through, but nothing more. My iPhone is pretty good at detecting which notifications are time sensitive, and that’s good enough for me. These are all the settings you need. You may have to adjust some settings in this focus mode from time to time, but this should be enough to get you started.
It’s worth noting that the other focus modes now also have an Intelligent Breakthrough and Mute switch, but you’ll need to turn it on to use it with them – it doesn’t have to turn on automatically like the Interruption Reduction mode does. Limiting it to “Reduce Interruptions” is a good way to turn AI notification filtering on and off on the fly.