A while ago I made a decision to enable Do Not Disturb mode on my iPhone as a default. What I mean by “as a default” is that I don’t turn it on only at bedtime or only when I’m delivering training, instead I have it turned on most of the time.
I’ve done this because I’ve been receiving too many unwanted calls, mainly from companies trying to sell me insurance and offer me compensation for a not-my-fault minor car accident in 2011. Yes I know I can block the numbers but it’s too late after the event. (Post updated Dec 2020 – scroll to the end for details)
The problem with this scenario of course is that there are people that I want to talk to when Do Not Disturb is enabled. Initially I used the option “Allow Calls From Favourites” which can be found in the Do Not Disturb settings however then I decided that the people I wanted to talk to weren’t necessarily the people I wanted in my Favourites list.
So instead I created a contacts group called “DND Exceptions” and added a few of my contacts into it. Now if someone calls and they are a member of that group, the phone will ring/vibrate.
It’s worth noting here that you can’t create and manage groups and group membership via the Contacts app on the iPhone. You either have to do it using the Contacts app on the Mac (ensuring that it and the Contacts app on the iPhone are syncing to the same iCloud account) or login to icloud.com in a browser.
Using icloud.com on a computer (Mac or PC) is fine but what if you only have an iPhone to hand? Opening Safari or Chrome and navigating to icloud.com displays a screen with the following 3 options: Set up iCloud on this device, Open Find My iPhone, Open Find My Friends
To login to icloud you need to request the desktop site. In Chrome tap on the 3 dots icon at the top right of the screen to display a menu. Towards the bottom of the menu is “Request Desktop Site”. Tapping on this option displays the regular icloud.com website. In Safari, tap the Share icon at the bottom of the screen and swipe to the left until you find the Request Desktop Site button.
At this point I thought I was sorted…until I received a phone call from Elaine (who is in my DND Exceptions group) asking my why I was ignoring her texts. When I looked at the Messages app, there was indeed a text message from Elaine however the iPhone had not notified me when it arrived. It turns out that the Allow Calls From relates to phone calls only. It does not extend to text messages.
There is a way to resolve this, using a feature in iOS 10 called Emergency Bypass which lets you pick which notifications (calls or texts) get through to you from a specific contact while DND mode is active. It will also bypass silent mode.
- Open the Contacts app on the iPhone
- Tap on the name of the contact whose text messages you want to receive when in DND mode
- Tap Edit at the top right of the screen
- Tap Text Tone
- Swipe the Emergency Bypass switch (at the top of the screen) to ON
Silence Unkown Callers
I recently discovered this feature even though it’s been around for over 12 months (it came with iOS 13. With the feature enabled, the only time an incoming call will make your iPhone ring is if the phone number is found in your Contacts, recent outgoing calls, or is a Siri suggestion (sourced from the Mail or Messages apps). Any other calls will go straight to voicemail.
To enable Silence Unknown Callers, open the Settings app on your iPhone. Tap Phone and scroll down until you find Silence Unknown Callers and slide the switch to the ON position.
Thank you for this info! This is the only source I’ve found for something that is very important to me as a 24/7 on-call person. I need those texts to come through! Really clear and useful info.
On my iphone, I went to settings > sounds and haptics > Ringtone > Tone Store, then bought a silent ringtone for $1.29, and set that to my default ringtone.
Then I went though my contact list on my iphone, clicking every important contact one at a time and changing the ringtone from default (silent) to a normal ringtone. (I have less than 50 contacts that I want to be sure to get their calls realtime, so it didn’t take too long.)
So when a contact calls, my phone rings. When anyone else calls, it doesn’t.
And imessages and texts work normally.
Awesome – love it!!
If one uses DND on a permanent basis, configured to have only calls from Contacts ring the phone on DND, then that eliminates annoying interruptions from spam callers. However, as you indicated, all text messages are silenced. The info you provided is useful, to allow text messages from specific contacts. Can one enable Emergency Bypass for texts from all Contacts (or from a group of Contacts)? That would be awesome! Thanks in advance.
How do I retrieve text missed while smart phone was on do not disturb??
To retrieve a text missed while the phone is on DND, simply use the Messages app. The text will still be there but when the phone is on Do Not Disturb, you won’t get a notification of the incoming text
Thank you I’ve been looking for this for ages!
I like the emergency bypass option but do not like that when the phone is silenced they still come through. I think that should be a time when nothing comes through. Ive turned the ringer off a couple times and a call has come through (emergency bypass) and it wasn’t an emergency and the timing of the call wasn’t appropriate.
Informative article – thank you