How to use the new Reduce Interruptions Focus on iPhone

Learn about the new Reduce Interruptions Focus in iOS 18 that uses Apple Intelligence to have your iPhone intelligently inform you of important notifications and mute those it thinks are unimportant.

The Focus feature on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro allows you to set up various modes that help you concentrate on a task, such as working, gaming, reading, sleeping, vacationing, and so forth, by cutting down the disturbance.

iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia add a new Focus mode called Reduce Interruptions that can intelligently figure out if an alert is important or not.

• If the new notification is important, such as a text from your spouse informing you to pick up your kid early from school, you will be notified of it.
• And if the alert is something trivial, like a notification from an entertainment or coupon app, it will silence that automatically.

You can, of course, see all notifications, including the ones silenced automatically, in the Notification Center at any time.

Additionally, like other Focus modes, you can customize the Reduce Interruptions Focus to allow or silence all alerts from a specific person or app.

Supported devices

Reduce Interruptions Focus uses Apple Intelligence to figure out which alerts are important and which ones are not. As a result, Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools, system-wide text summaries, new Siri animation, photo cleanup, and the Reduce Interruptions Focus are available on just these devices.

• iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and newer models
• iPad with an Apple silicon chip (M1, M2, M3, M4, or one of its variants)
• Mac with an Apple silicon chip

Furthermore, your devices must be on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later, with Apple Intelligence enabled in Settings/System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri.

Set up Reduce Interruptions Focus

The process is similar to other Focus modes. We’re using an iPhone, but the steps are similar on iPad or Mac.

1) Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Focus.

2) Select Reduce Interruptions from the list of available Focus modes.

3) You will see the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch at the top. This is the main highlight of the Reduce Interruptions Focus, so you cannot turn it off.

Note that alerts from people and apps added to your allowlist or blocklist (explained below) are always allowed or silenced. Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing leaves these alerts untouched.

4) Next, you can use the People and Apps section to allow or silence alerts from specific individuals and installed applications.

For instance, if you want to receive all alerts from your kids or boss even during Reduce Interruptions Focus, tap People, select Allow Notifications From, and hit the Add People button to add them to this allowlist.

Conversely, if there is a person or application whose alert you do not want to receive, select Silence Notification From and add that person or app.

Note that if a suggested person or app is already added to the People or Apps list, you can tap the minus button to remove them, in case you do not want to allow/silence their alerts.

5) Finally, customize the remaining things, like Options, Screens, automatic schedule, and Focus Filters. You can learn all about it in our dedicated tutorial on setting up Focus mode. After that, simply exit the Settings app.

Activate Reduce Interruptions Focus

You can activate the Reduce Interruptions Focus just like other modes.

Go to Control Center, tap Focus, and select Reduce Interruptions. You can also tap the three dots icon and enable it temporarily for an hour or until evening/morning.

When it’s time to turn it off, you can do that from Control Center or by touching and holding the “Reduce Interruptions” label on the Lock Screen.

Additionally, you can go to Settings > Focus > Reduce Interruptions and tap Add Schedule to activate and deactivate this Focus per your defined schedule. You can also set it to auto-enable smartly based on the times your iPhone thinks is suitable.

Notifications during Reduce Interruptions Focus

As mentioned, your iPhone will use artificial intelligence as well as its learning based on your interactions with various people and apps to figure out which alerts are important and which are not.

• Notifications deemed unimportant will be silenced and quietly stack up in your Notification Center. You can see them manually when you swipe up on the Lock Screen or swipe down from the top-center of the unlocked iPhone to open the Notification Center. If you want to see the notifications on the Lock Screen, head to Settings > Focus > Reduce Interruptions > Options and enable Show On Lock Screen.
• Important texts, calls, and time-sensitive or critical app alerts will continue to show up and alert you as normal by the usual tone and haptics. Similarly, calls, texts, and notifications from allowed people and apps will come in normally. When you go to the Notification Center, you will see the Maybe Important label informing you that your iPhone thinks this alert is of importance to you.

Note that if you use an app frequently during this Focus, you may be prompted to add this app to your allowlist.

Turn another Focus mode to work as the Reduce Interruptions Focus

When you turn on the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch for other Focus modes, such as Do Not Disturb, Work, Driving, and so forth, it will behave the same way as the Reduce Interruptions Focus. So, if you like the concept of this new Reduce Interruptions Focus, you can get its functionality in your existing Focus simply by enabling the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch.

Unlike other Focus modes, you cannot turn off the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch for Reduce Interruptions Focus, as this is its core feature.

Note that the Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing switch for other Focus modes is only available on iPhones that support Apple Intelligence.

A word of caution

Apple Intelligence can get things wrong. As a result, the Reduced Interruptions Focus may mute some calls, texts, and notifications that may be important to you.

So, if you’re expecting a call or email from your bank, courier, delivery person, job interview, and so forth, I’d recommend turning all Focus modes off for that day.

Other tips to manage iPhone notifications:

• How (and why) to use Scheduled Summary notifications on iPhone
• How to set app notifications to deliver quietly on iPhone

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2024/09/13/how-to-use-reduce-interruptions-focus/