Apps bypassing Focus mode

[jcgarcianaranjo]

Hello everyone.

I recently set up Focus mode, to avoid being distracted at work by my phone. I set it up to only allow certain apps to send me notifications. This list does NOT include apps like Whatsapp. However, even with the focus mode turned on (and specifically the focus mode that I set up for this purpose), Whatsapp is bypassing it and the phone is letting their notifications through.

What could be going on? I've double-checked every setting and I don't think anything is misconfigured. Is this a bug?

Thanks a lot!

 

[ManuCH]

Did you also allow certain people/contacts to bypass your focus mode? If yes, that's also valid for Whatsapp or any other app which includes contact information when sending a push notification.

 

[jcgarcianaranjo]

Thanks for your answer.
Nope, I have no one on my people allow-list and yet notifications are making it through

 

[ManuCH]

That's weird! Are you using an Apple Watch? I remember it misbehaving with that sometimes. Other than that, it's working fine here and no WhatsApp ever bypassed any of my focus modes... I don't have any further ideas unfortunately. Maybe try deleting and recreating the focus mode?

 

[jcgarcianaranjo]

It seems to me like if I open the app during Focus mode, when I close it, there's some time while I still get notifications that go through. But after some minutes, they stop. It may be a bug or maybe the iPhone is assuming that I'm not done responding to messages? I don't know. Thanks for the help anyway. At least now I know I can just wait about 10 minutes after I close the app and then the notifications stop. Thanks again!

 

[ManuCH]

Ohh, then I know what it is: Whatsapp has this bad habit of staying in the background for a while, and fetching messages by itself (without using Apple's official push notification system) until it's suspended by iOS. While in that mode, it uses "local notifications" which can bypass focus mode. That's a Whatsapp bug actually.

 

[kkclstuff]

hi if I understand your situation, it may be that the app you have set to trigger your "focus mode" is moving to the 'background'.

I have a focus set if FaceTime app is running it goes to Work Focus automatically. BUT... when im in a meeting and open the Finder (to search for a document or forward an email), Focus turns off. As soon as I bring FaceTime back to the Foreground — focus reactivates.
**This is a silly result, the focus setting should remain active while the app is running in either the foreground or background.

 

[kkclstuff]

Sadly this is still happening in Sequoia 15.0.1