What is Focus Mode and How to Use It?

In this article, I will talk about the Focus mode that will enter our lives in the digital world with iOS 15.

One of the most comprehensive features announced with WWDC21 was the Focus mode. In this article, I will try to explain the Focus mode investigations and results I have done.

I have completed all my investigations with the beta 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 versions released by Apple and I will express the Focus mode with the updates in the last beta 4 version.

First of all, what is Focus mode?

Focus mode is a new feature that allows users to reduce notifications to coming from apps, not to disturb the users when they are not wanted, or to set only who they can contact while this mode is active.

It is very similar to the existing Do Not Disturb feature, but new add-ons have been added to it. Already with iOS 15, the Do Not Disturb option will now appear as a Focus mode.

So how can we use Focus mode?

If you want to test and observe like me, you can download the developer beta version from here. You can install the new version by clicking this link from your device to install.

When you select the focus tab from your phone’s settings, you can choose one of the focus options or add a new Focus mode.You will see some customizable options on the screen that comes after the mode which you have selected.

With using them;

1-You can set the people or applications you want to receive notification from
2-If your application is communication application, you can select the people you want to receive calls from
3-You can set which apps you want to see Time-Sensitive notifications
4-When you activate the Focus mode, it can indicate to the people who want to reach you that you are in Focus mode
5-You can set Home Screen and Lock Screen notifications to appear and count badges
6-Finally, with Smart Activation , you can activate selected Focus mode with the settings you specify for the applications you want at any time interval.

Let us now examine the contents of these substances one by one.

1-When you are in a Focus mode, you can give notification permission to people if you are focused on a job or something and do not want to be disturbed, but if you want to allow someone from your family or close circle to reach you. Likewise, you can add notifications from which application you want to receive notifications from.

As seen in the picture, the people or applications you add to the list will be exempt from your focus and their notifications will reach you.

2-If you are making these settings for Call or Messaging applications, there are a few important points. Even if you are in Focus mode from the previously known call’s access option, your settings may be affected differently. Let’s exemplify this with a table.

As seen in the table, if your Phone Calls setting is in the No one option and the application is not in the exempt list, the calls you receive will not be visible on your phone.(Allow Repeated Calls property was disabled in all call tests.)

** You can specify your options in Phone Calls setting as seen screenshot below.

• **There is a situation where the messages are not reaching. But I suppose this is a bug in developer beta version and this will be fixed in the public beta or general release. Here, our expectation will be as follows; If the sender is on the exception list, the notification will appear.

3-Notifications that come as Time-Sensitive notifications are shown to the user by breaking the focus even if the application is not in this list. Notifications that are classed as time sensitive are those that are immediately important, such as someone at the door, a food delivery, a ride pickup, and more.

4- With the Focus Status option, for example, you can notify the person who sent you a message from a communication application that you are in Focus mode. Likewise, that user can send you a notification again on the grounds that there is an emergency.

Here is a sample code of Requesting Focus Authorization , Checking Focus Status and Current Focus Status

5-In Home Screen, you can turn off the notifications that come in Focus mode from appearing on the application badge. With a similar feature, you may not want the notifications to appear while in Focus mode in the notification center.

6-With the Smart Activation setting, you can activate the focus according to Time, Location or Application.

After making all these settings, you can easily activate the focus mode from the Control Center.

We will continue to explore all these features with iOS 15.That’s all I can tell for now. There is no comprehensive document on the full use of Focus Mode for developers yet. You can follow my updates again when a new release comes.