How to Use Do Not Disturb in iOS 12
Some good news for fans of iOS's Do Not Disturb feature: it's little changed from previous versions. But the even better news is that a change Apple did introduce with iOS 12 is likely to make Do Not Disturb an even more valuable tool.
You can now stop notifications, phone calls and other distractions based on your location. In iOS 12, when you turn on Do Not Disturb, you have the option of keeping the feature enabled until you leave your current location. It's a feature that's sure to be valuable to anyone headed into a meeting, conference or child's activity who'd prefer their phone not to buzz for the duration.
Here's how to access Do Not Disturb's newly added powers, along with a recap of how to manage the rest of this iOS feature.—Philip Michaels
How to Tie Do Not Disturb to Your Location
1. Swipe up on your iPhone's screen to summon iOS 12's Control Center.
2. Long press on the Do Not Disturb icon. (it's the one that looks like a moon.)
3. A list of options will appear, including one that offers to keep Do Not Disturb enabled until you leave the particular location you're at.
4. Tap that option, and Do Not Disturb will turn on. The feature will turn off automatically once you leave your current location, or you can tap the Do Not Disturb icon again to manually turn it off.
Want more control over Do Not Disturb? As with previous versions of iOS, you can manage its various features from the Settings app.
How to Manage Do Not Disturb
1. From Settings, tap on Do Not Disturb.
2. Turn on Do Not Disturb by toggling on the arrow at the top of the screen.
3. You can also schedule a set time for Do Not Disturb to turn on, if there's a regular time period when you'd prefer no interruptions. Slide on the switch next to Scheduled and tap the hours to bring up a scroll wheel to set how long the feature should stay on.
In the schedule section, you can also turn on Bedtime Mode, a new addition to Do Not Disturb that dims the lock screen, silences calls and sends alerts to the Notification Center rather than have them pop up as banners.
4. Determine how thorough you want Do Not Disturb to be. By default, the feature silences incoming calls and notifications only when your iPhone is locked. Tapping Always keeps those notifications at bay even if you're using your phone.
5. Determine who can override your Do Not Disturb settings. By default, everyone's calls are let through. But tapping on Everyone lets you fine-tune the control to only let in calls from favorites or block calls altogether. You can also manage Do Not Disturb calls for groups in your contacts.
Do Not Disturb will let a second call from the same person through if they call back within 3 minutes; however, you have the option of turning off this feature.
6. Last year's iOS 11 update added a Do Not Disturb While Driving feature, and that's back in iOS 12. By default, you have to turn the feature on manually, but if you tap on Manually, you can opt to activate it automatically or when your iPhone connects to your car via Bluetooth.
Note that if Do Not Disturb is turned on, calls can still get through if your phone is connected to your car's Bluetooth or to a hands-free accessory; notifications such as texts will be silenced, though.
7. If people do try to text you when driving, you can manage who gets auto-replies alerting them that you're behind the wheel of a car. By default, your favorites receive an auto-reply, but you can extend it recents or all contacts. You can also turn off the feature altogether.
iOS 12 supplies you with a pre-written reply. Tapping Auto-Reply lets you edit that message to your liking.
You can add a shortcut to the Control Center screen that lets you enable Do Not Disturb by tapping the icon of a car. You can add that shortcut in iOS 12 using the same method for customizing Control Center introduced in iOS 11.
