Silence noisy iPhones and iPads running iOS 6

The latest operating system for Apple’s mobile devices, iOS 6, includes new options to silence incoming calls and message alerts. This Do Not Disturb mode still allows phone calls, emails and texts to be received but visual and audio notification can be suppressed. The idea is that with Do Not Disturb enabled, your iPhone, iPod or iPad will not disturb you by vibrating or turning on the screen. Read on to find out how it works. Android users wanting the same function should read the section at the end of this piece.

Step 1
This workshop assumes that your Apple device has iOS 6 installed. If not, tap Settings followed by General then Software Update and follow the prompts. Once done, the Do Not Disturb mode can be turned on and off by using the corresponding switch in Settings. When Do Not Disturb is set to On, a crescent moon icon will appear in the middle of the iOS toolbar at the top of the screen. When it is active, there will be no audible or vibrate notification of incoming telephone calls, emails, text messages and other message types. Incoming calls will go straight to voicemail, but missed calls and other incoming message notifications will still appear on screen in the usual way. Alarms are not affected by Do Not Disturb.

Step 2
As well as enabling Do Not Disturb manually for one-off situations, such as to avoid disturbing other people in a cinema, the mode can also be scheduled to activate automatically every day. Still in Settings, tap the Notifications option below the Do Not Disturb toggle, then tap the Do No Disturb option. A Scheduled toggle switch then appears. Set this to On and set the required From and To hours below. A crescent moon icon will now appear in the menu bar during these scheduled times.

Step 3
Silencing all incoming message alerts is something of a sledgehammer approach, so iOS 6 also allows exceptions to be made. Still on the screen opened in Step 2, tap the Allow Calls From option to enable telephone call notifications from certain contacts. Everyone and No One work in the obvious way, while Favourites enables telephone call notifications only from contacts on the iOS Phone app’s Favorites list. Alternatively, a specific contact list group can be selected (if available), or a new one created using OS X Contacts, Gmail Contacts or another iOS-sync compatible application. These exceptions work only for telephone calls and not other message types.