How to Let a Contact Bypass iOS 12's Do Not Disturb Mode Without Adding Them to Your Favorites List

[MacRumors]

In iOS 12, Do Not Disturb mode conveniently allows you to silence all calls, alerts, and notifications on iPhone or iPad for a given period and reduce the potential for unnecessary distractions.

Aside from new time-limited options in iOS 12's Control Center, Do Not Disturb can be turned on and scheduled ahead of time by going to Settings -> Do Not Disturb. Among these settings, there's also an Allow Calls From option for which you can choose Everyone, No One, or Favorites.

Given these last three choices, it would seem fair to assume that the only way to let specific contacts get through to you when Do Not Disturb is on, is to add them to your Favorites list. However, there's another way to let a contact bypass Do Not Disturb mode, and it has nothing to do with enabling the Repeated Calls option.

In fact, the little-known feature described below is arguably more powerful, since it lets you receive only text messages from that contact, or only phone calls from them (or both, if you wish) for just as long as the feature is enabled. Keep reading to learn how it's done.

1. Launch the Contacts app on your iPhone.
   
   
   Tap a contact in the list.
2. Tap Edit.
   
   
   If you want to let calls come through from this contact when Do Not Disturb mode is active, tap Ringtone and then on the next screen toggle the Emergency Bypass switch to the green ON position.
   Tap Done to return to the Contact card.
3. Similarly, if you want to let text messages come through from the contact, tap Text Tone and then enable Emergency Bypass on the next screen.
4. Tap Done to return to the Contact card.
   Tap Done to finish.

As some readers have noted, enabling Emergency Bypass also allows the contact's call ringtone or message alert to sound even when your iPhone or iPad is muted, so it's best to use the feature selectively, i.e. when you're expecting to hear from that contact.

Article Link: How to Let a Contact Bypass iOS 12's Do Not Disturb Mode Without Adding Them to Your Favorites List

 

[neliason]

That is a little known feature and is really handy.

For me the problem I’ve encountered isn’t allowing notifications to get through but absolutely preventing them. I wish there was an ‘absolutely do not disturb’ option. The problem I’ve had is with alarms. Once I had a bedtime alarm set. I woke up well before the alarm and went to an earlier church service. I set my phone to vibrate with DND. Yet, during the worst possible time when it was especially quiet I suddenly hear my gentle bed time alarm song. I was mortified. After this I turn my phone off when I really don’t want to be disturbed.

 

[eternlgladiator]

That is a little known feature and is really handy.

For me the problem I’ve encountered isn’t allowing notifications to get through but absolutely preventing them. I wish there was an ‘absolutely do not disturb’ option. The problem I’ve had is with alarms. Once I had a bedtime alarm set. I woke up well before the alarm and went to an earlier church service. I set my phone to vibrate with DND. Yet, during the worst possible time when it was especially quiet I suddenly hear my gentle bed time alarm song. I was mortified. After this I turn my phone off when I really don’t want to be disturbed.

Why would you want DND to stop alarms? That sounds like a recipe for disaster...

On a side note, I've been wondering how to do this for years. Now I can finally allow texts from my wife to come through while keeping my phone on DND when she's working late.

 

[djs71a]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

 

[MartialEagle]

I’m surprised this took so long to make it on my go to site. When DND first came out my wife found this feature and told me about it and she doesn’t follow anything in regards to Apple like I do. Then again, Apple loves having all these features so you find them randomly.

 

[Mr$tone]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

Yes, and that’s a VERY important caveat.

I learned this the hard way while being in a meeting where my phone was supposed to be completely silent (yes, there are such occasions) and all of the sudden the phone started playing the ringtone. It took a while for me to figure out why the mute switch didn’t do its job.

So, even though this is a great lesser known feature, you should be carefull playing with it!

To sum up, this feature doesn’t only affect the DND setting but also the mute switch—be careful since there’s no way making sure your phone stays silent once you enable this feature (except for turning your phone off)!

 

[neliason]

Why would you want DND to stop alarms? That sounds like a recipe for disaster...

That is why I want ‘absolutely do not disturb’. I definitely understand how silencing alarms can be problematic. I do not want that most of the time. But there are times when you might want to silence them as well. The only reliable solution right now is to turn your phone off. I would hope we could come up with something better.

 

[chewbaka]

There's also an option in settings to allow calls from certain contacts groups. So if you're just interested in calls, you could add anyone you want to allow calls from to a single group in contacts and allow calls from that group. A little simpler.

 

[MrGimper]

I created a contact group called “DND Bypass” and selected that group in “Allow calls from”.

 

[ooloo]

just what i needed. thnx!

 

[mmorath09]

Yes, and that’s a VERY important caveat.

I learned this the hard way while being in a meeting where my phone was supposed to be completely silent (yes, there are such occasions) and all of the sudden the phone started playing the ringtone. It took a while for me to figure out why the mute switch didn’t do its job.

So, even though this is a great lesser known feature, you should be carefull playing with it!

To sum up, this feature doesn’t only affect the DND setting but also the mute switch—be careful since there’s no way making sure your phone stays silent once you enable this feature (except for turning your phone off)!

I too learned the hard way on this, be careful.

 

[nicho]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

Anyone know how this works with apple watch? The kids are asleep so I'm not going to test it myself right now...

 

[eternlgladiator]

That is why I want ‘absolutely do not disturb’. I definitely understand how silencing alarms can be problematic. I do not want that most of the time. But there are times when you might want to silence them as well. The only reliable solution right now is to turn your phone off. I would hope we could come up with something better.

How many alarms do you have set? I think most people set up a waking alarm and turn that off once they've used it for the day. I think unfortunately you're in the minority here where most people would be more pissed they missed an alarm than forgot to turn one off.

 

[neliason]

How many alarms do you have set? I think most people set up a waking alarm and turn that off once they've used it for the day. I think unfortunately you're in the minority here where most people would be more pissed they missed an alarm than forgot to turn one off.

I usually only have a bedtime alarm set (I mean the ‘Bedtime’ alarms and not the regular alarms). But some people do set various alarms. An alarm isn’t something you think about turning off, unless it goes off. In my case I woke up well before the alarm is set. The bedtime alarm is something that I don’t normally turn off. Rather I just stop it when it goes off. If I turn it off then it isn’t on for the next day.

I might be in the minority in so far as this happening to someone. But I doubt I’m in a minority in so far as people at various times truly not wanting noise coming from their phones, including alarms. Again, I agree that in certain circumstances people don’t want an alarm to be silenced. But I don’t think this is true in all circumstances.

 

[Mr$tone]

Anyone know how this works with apple watch? The kids are asleep so I'm not going to test it myself right now...

It also bypasses mute on the Apple Watch, i.e. your watch will sound even if muted.

 

[gigapocket1]

Awe man... I was excited about this until I read that it over rides the mute switch as well

 

[gretafour]

I'm still waiting for a way to send all non-contact phone calls direct to voicemail without ringing (and mute the voicemail notification). That would take care of 99% of unwanted calls.

 

[RobNYC]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

Yeah that might be an issue if I'm at the movies.

 

[Mr$tone]

Awe man... I was excited about this until I read that it over rides the mute switch as well

It also overrides the mute switch on an iPad that’s logged into the same iCloud account and makes the iPad sound wherever it’s laying around in the world as long as it has a connection (mobile or Wi-Fi).

Let’s say you are at work with your iPhone and have the above feature turned on for a certain contact on your phone (messages in this particular case). You also have an iPad at home which is supposed to be silent and hence has the mute switch muted. Your contacts on both units are set to sync using iCloud. Then, when you receive a message on your phone you also (of course) receive it on your iPad at home. Since the above feature overrides the mute switch, your iPad will sound when the message arrive even when the mute switch is on and even if notifications are off. This is important to know since there could be situations where you want your iPad (which in this case is geographically out of your reach) to not make any sound at all.

 

[j238]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

My ringtone is set to a *silent* mp3. No matter what happens with incoming calls & texts, it never audibly rings!

 

[Mr$tone]

My ringtone is set to a *silent* mp3. No matter what happens with incoming calls & texts, it never audibly rings!

That solves the issue with sound when you want to use the above feature BUT you never get any sound at all for incoming calls/texts and that’s probably not the solution for an average user.

 

[DaPizzaMan]

I created a contact group called “DND Bypass” and selected that group in “Allow calls from”.

How do you go about doing that?

 

[MrGimper]

How do you go about doing that?

You can either set up groups via the iCloud website, or you can download a free app called "Groups" to do it.

For the life of me, I cannot work out why you can't create and manage groups natively on the device.

 

[kstotlani]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

I love this feature. Always hoped for it but logically never made sense but I guess Apple thought it is required. Maybe some executive at Apple has a spouse who has their phone on silent at all times and hard to reach.

 

[C DM]

One caveat to this, if you have your phone's side switch set to silent / vibrate, the sound of the call or text still comes through.

Awe man... I was excited about this until I read that it over rides the mute switch as well

Yeah, it's unfortunate that there isn't an option to bypass DND but not the side switch.