Have you ever received a phone call, heard your iPhone start ringing loudly, but the moment you picked up the device to look at the screen, the ringing volume immediately dropped to a whisper? Many users assume this is a glitch or a broken speaker, but it is actually an intentional feature called “Attention Aware.” Using the TrueDepth camera system (the same sensors used for Face ID), your iPhone detects when you are looking at the screen. If it sees your face, it intelligently lowers the ringer volume, assuming you no longer need a loud alert because you have acknowledged the phone. However, if you find this volume drop annoying, you can turn it off.
How to Disable Attention Aware Features
Turning off this feature ensures your iPhone will ring at the exact same loud volume from the first second until the moment you physically answer or decline the call.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down the menu and tap on Face ID & Passcode (or “Accessibility” if you are on a very old iOS version).
- Enter your iPhone’s passcode when prompted.
- Scroll down the page until you find the “Attention” section.
- Locate the toggle switch labelled Attention Aware Features.
- Tap the toggle to turn it off (the switch will turn from green to grey).
What Else Does This Change?
It is important to understand that “Attention Aware Features” controls more than just the ringer volume. By turning this off, you will also disable two other intelligent behaviours:
- Auto-Dimming: Your iPhone will no longer keep the screen awake just because you are looking at it. If your Auto-Lock is set to 30 seconds, the screen will dim and lock after 30 seconds, even if you are actively reading an article without touching the glass.
- Notification Privacy: If you use the setting that hides notification content on the lock screen until Face ID authenticates you, turning off Attention Aware might slightly alter how quickly those notifications expand.