Do Not Disturb + Selective Notifications

[welp_]

Hi all!

Not sure if this functionality exists within focus + do not disturb... it's a bit hard to usefully search for on the internet given the key words. I'll explain what I'm looking to do-

My phone is on Do Not Disturb 95% of the time, this is how I like it. The only notifications I get are from my spouse, this is how I like it. I want to add another layer that is: I only receive notifications from my spouse if the iMessage is somehow marked 'urgent' or has a keyword in it. I want my spouse to be able to send me whatever random thoughts/memes/etc throughout the work day but with no notifications. I only want to be notified if there is an actual issue that needs my attention with our children, emergency, etc.

Simply telling my spouse not to text me unless its a dire emergency isn't an option or the solution I'm looking for. I don't think there's another way of abstraction/filtering for my use case?

The best solution I can think of that's not perfect is my spouse can call me and I'll be notified by the buzzing and I can safely ignore all iMessages. Let me know if I'm missing something or if you have any ideas!

Thanks!

 

[iStorm]

Haven't tried this myself, but I think you could do what you're looking for via Personal Automations in the Shortcuts app.

In the Shortcuts app, create a personal automation "When I Get a Message Containing 'urgent' From Wifey", Do Show Notification. The notification would be some static text you entered, such as "Wifey sent urgent message". You would also likely need to update your "Do Not Disturb" focus mode to allow notifications from the Shortcuts app.

There are other actions you could use instead, like 'Vibrate device', but I think that would be easier to miss if you didn't have the phone on you. (The 'Show Notification' action will also vibrate your phone if you have it play sound.)

If you happen to have other Shortcuts with notifications that you don't want to break through the Do Not Disturb mode, instead of allowing the app, you could have an action to turn Do Not Disturb off before showing the notification.

 

[welp_]

Haven't tried this myself, but I think you could do what you're looking for via Personal Automations in the Shortcuts app.

In the Shortcuts app, create a personal automation "When I Get a Message Containing 'urgent' From Wifey", Do Show Notification. The notification would be some static text you entered, such as "Wifey sent urgent message". You would also likely need to update your "Do Not Disturb" focus mode to allow notifications from the Shortcuts app.

View attachment 2250255 View attachment 2250260

There are other actions you could use instead, like 'Vibrate device', but I think that would be easier to miss if you didn't have the phone on you. (The 'Show Notification' action will also vibrate your phone if you have it play sound.)

If you happen to have other Shortcuts with notifications that you don't want to break through the Do Not Disturb mode, instead of allowing the app, you could have an action to turn Do Not Disturb off before showing the notification.

Thank you for the thorough and helpful response! I did what you instructed and screenshotted from above. This is pretty close to a solution! Unfortunately it looks like Shortcuts isn't an app option to allow notifications from in Focus mode though.

 

[iStorm]

Thank you for the thorough and helpful response! I did what you instructed and screenshotted from above. This is pretty close to a solution! Unfortunately it looks like Shortcuts isn't an app option to allow notifications from in Focus mode though.

I did some poking around with this out of curiosity. Looks like you don't actually have to whitelist the Shortcuts app. Notifications from that app will come through when Do Not Disturb is on.

However, it still didn't quite work like I thought it would. Instead of showing your custom notification right away, it shows a notification from the Shortcuts app letting you know it wants to run an action. Once you confirm/run it, the actions are then performed.

With that in mind, you could probably tweak the automation. Instead of doing the 'Show Notification' action, you could do 'Open App' and have it open Messages. Now when you get an urgent message, you'd get a notification from Shortcuts letting you know it wants to run something (this would be your indication that an urgent message came through), tapping/running that will take you right to the Messages app.

Also, you don't necessarily have to pick a sender in the when clause. You can just have it apply to all messages that contain 'urgent' in case you wanted others to be able to break through and reach you as well (i.e. friends, co-workers, boss, etc).