How to allow or silence notifications for a Focus on iPhone

On iPhone, when you set up a Focus, you can select people and apps you want to receive notifications from. For example, set up a Work Focus and allow only notifications from your coworkers and the apps you use for work.

You can also silence specific people or apps, and allow repeated calls, which are two or more calls from the same person within 3 minutes.

Here’s how to allow or silence notifications for a Focus on iPhone.

Allow or silence notifications from specific people during a Focus

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap Focus. Then choose a Focus—for example, Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, or Work.
Tap People (or tap Choose People). Do one of the following:
- Allow specific people: Tap Allow Notifications From, tap the Add People button, and then select from your contacts.
  
  You can also turn on options to allow calls from certain groups of people and allow repeated calls (two or more calls from the same person within 3 minutes).
- Silence specific people: Tap Silence Notifications From, tap the Add People button, and then select people from your contacts.
  
  You can also turn on Allow Calls From Silenced People.

Note: Regardless of your Focus settings, you can allow calls from your emergency contacts to come through. See Allow calls from emergency contacts when notifications are silenced, below.

With Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing on, Apple Intelligence lets important notifications interrupt you, while it silences notifications determined not to be important.

Note: Apple Intelligence on iOS 27 or later is available on an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 model or later. Apple Intelligence is not available in all languages or regions. Usage limits may apply.*

Allow or silence notifications from specific apps during a Focus

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap Focus. Then choose a Focus—for example, Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, or Work.
Tap Apps (or tap Choose Apps) and then do one of the following:
- Allow specific apps: Tap Allow Notifications From and tap the Add Apps button. Select apps.
- Silence specific apps: Tap Silence Notifications From, tap the Add Apps button, and select apps.

Note: Web apps you’ve added to your Home Screen count, too. You can allow or silence notifications from specific ones.

Turning on Time Sensitive Notifications lets all apps send time-sensitive notifications immediately.

Choose whether to share your Focus status

People who try to contact you, in Messages for example, may see that you have “notifications silenced.” That happens when you’re using a Focus with your focus status turned on, which you can turn on or off.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Tap Focus and tap Focus Status.
Turn Share Focus Status on or off.
If you turn it on, choose which Focus profiles can share that you have notifications silenced.

Allow calls from emergency contacts when notifications are silenced

Even when your iPhone or notifications are silenced, sounds and vibrations from emergency contacts can still come through if you’ve allowed them.

Open Contacts.
Select a contact, then tap Edit.
Tap Ringtone or Text Tone. Then turn on Emergency Bypass.

You could also set up your Medical ID and identify an emergency contact.

*Apple Intelligence is available with Siri and device language set to Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, or Vietnamese. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. Some devices may not be available in all regions.

Siri AI is available in beta in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 and requires an Apple Intelligence–enabled device set to a supported language. Available in English to start. Siri AI will not be initially available in the EU on iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Certain Apple Intelligence features that rely on server-side models are subject to daily usage limits, including but not limited to Siri AI, Intelligent Photo Editing Tools, Image Playground, and AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts.

Daily limits may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors. Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future. Use of these features is subject to the Apple Intelligence Terms and Conditions.