How to Set Custom Focus Modes on IPhone
The iPhone’s focus modes are perhaps its most underrated feature. Once set up, they can be incredibly powerful tools, allowing you to control how your iPhone attracts your attention. It may take some time to set up, but it’s worth it. Once you’re set up, you’ll have time limits for specific apps, people, and even work, helping you achieve that elusive work-life balance. Forget about a personal phone and a work phone—a couple of well-tuned focus modes can be all you need.
Diving into Focus Modes
What used to be called “Do Not Disturb” on iPhone is now called “Focus” mode, which offers many more options. Open Control Center and tap the “Focus” button to see a list of all available Focus modes. At the top will be the familiar “Do Not Disturb” mode, but you’ll also see useful Apple-designed Focus modes, such as “Sleep.” If your device supports Apple Intelligence, you’ll also see “Reduce Interruptions,” which automatically mutes all notifications except those that are truly important. Other preset modes include “Personal,” “Work,” and “Sleep,” which you can customize to your liking.
How to set your own focus mode
To get the most out of Focus Modes, you should set up multiple modes. One for work and one for personal time is a great start. Go to Settings > Focus and tap the Plus button at the top. Here, select the Custom mode for maximum flexibility. Give it a name and icon, and tap Next . Then tap Adjust Focus .
This is where you’ll do most of the work. First, tap “Select People” and choose whether you want to allow notifications from just a few people or disable notifications from specific people. If you’re setting up Focus mode for personal time, you can disable notifications only from your boss and coworkers. Select the people you want to allow notifications for and tap “Next.” Then, choose who is allowed to call you. You can limit the list to just a select few or a few.
Next, tap “Choose apps” and follow the same steps for apps, allowing notifications from specific apps or disabling notifications from specific apps. For example, if you’re setting up Focus mode for personal time, you can disable notifications from work apps like Slack, Teams, Gmail, and others. Go to the Settings menu, and you can also choose to display disabled notifications on the lock screen or dim the lock screen whenever Focus mode is enabled.
Next, take the time to customize what you see when Focus mode is enabled. Apple allows you to choose a separate Lock screen, Home screen, and even Apple Watch face for each Focus mode. For example, in Focus on Work mode, you might see only your calendar and to-do list. This will greatly help cement the Focus state in your mind. For example, when I’m in Focus on Writing mode, my Home screen is clear of everything, including the task widget and communication apps.
Next, you’ll see the “Set Schedule” section. Here, you can enable the Intelligent Wake-up feature, which will automatically turn on Focus Mode based on your location, app usage, and so on. I’ve had mixed results with this feature, so I’d recommend avoiding it for the most reliable results. However, you can definitely create a manual schedule using the “Add Schedule” button. Here, you can set Focus Mode to automatically turn on or off at specific times of day.
You can even use Focus filters to further customize what apps show you in Focus mode. For example, you can choose to only show your work calendar in Focus mode, but not other calendars. These filters work for both Apple and third-party apps.
Finally, you can enable the “Intelligent Breakthrough and Mute” feature, located at the top of the Focus page. If Apple Intelligence is enabled on your iPhone, you’ll see this setting. It uses built-in intelligence to allow priority notifications to interrupt you even when Silent mode is enabled. This overrides any other settings you may have made. However, being an Apple Intelligence feature, its reliability can be somewhat questionable. Based on personal experience, I’d recommend taking the time to fully customize Focus mode to your liking rather than relying on Apple Intelligence to handle some of this work, as it frequently fails for me.