How to Turn On Do Not Disturb on an iPhone

In our hyper-connected world, your iPhone is constantly buzzing with text messages, email alerts, and social media notifications. If you are trying to sleep, study for an exam, or attend an important meeting, this constant stream of interruptions can be incredibly disruptive.

To silence your phone, you do not need to turn it completely off or painstakingly mute every single app one by one. You simply need to turn on Do Not Disturb. This feature acts as a temporary dam, holding back all phone calls, texts, and app notifications until you are ready to see them.

(Note: In recent versions of iOS, Apple bundled Do Not Disturb under an umbrella feature called “Focus Mode,” which slightly changed how you turn it on).

How to Turn On Do Not Disturb Quickly

The fastest way to toggle the feature is by using the hidden Control Center.

1. Open the Control Center:
   • If you have an iPhone with Face ID (no home button): Swipe down from the very top-right corner of your screen (where the battery icon is).
   • If you have an iPhone with a physical Home Button: Swipe up from the very bottom edge of your screen.
2. Look for a rectangular button that says Focus. Next to the word Focus, you will see a small icon of a crescent moon.
3. Crucial Step: Do not tap the word “Focus.” Instead, tap directly on the crescent moon icon.

The crescent moon will instantly turn white, and the button will change to say “Do Not Disturb.” Your phone is now completely silenced. Calls will go straight to voicemail, and texts will silently pile up on your lock screen.

How to Let Emergency Calls Through

The biggest fear people have when turning on Do Not Disturb is that they will miss an emergency phone call from a spouse or a child. Apple built a safety bypass specifically for this scenario.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on Focus.
3. Tap on Do Not Disturb.
4. In the “Allow Notifications” section, tap on People.
5. Tap the Add People button to select specific family members from your contacts list. Even when Do Not Disturb is turned on, a phone call from these specific people will make your phone ring loudly.
6. Scroll down on this same page and ensure the toggle for Allow Repeated Calls is turned ON. This means that if anyone (even a stranger) calls you two times in a row within three minutes, the second call will break through the silence, assuming it is an emergency.

How to Schedule Do Not Disturb Automatically (For Sleep)

Instead of manually swiping down and tapping the moon icon every single night before bed, you can tell your iPhone to turn the feature on and off automatically based on the clock.

1. Go back to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb.
2. Scroll down to the “Set a Schedule” section.
3. Tap Add Schedule.
4. Tap Time.
5. Set the From time to your bedtime (e.g., 10:00 PM).
6. Set the To time to your alarm time (e.g., 7:00 AM).
7. Select the days of the week you want this to apply.
8. Tap Done.

Your iPhone will now automatically silence itself at 10:00 PM every night, and magically allow notifications to start flowing again at 7:00 AM.