Is the new Focus feature necessary?

[Rafagon]

Do you guys feel the new Focus feature is necessary? Or was the old Do Not Disturb enough?

How easily distracted are you that you need to hide certain home screens during certain Focuses?

I just want to hear some opinions.

 

[gwhizkids]

Do you guys feel the new Focus feature is necessary? Or was the old Do Not Disturb enough?

How easily distracted are you that you need to hide certain home screens during certain Focuses?

I just want to hear some opinions.

This is one of those “you don’t know you need it till they give it to you “ features.

I tend to think of it as much a contextual computing tool as anything else. Set up a Work focus and have only the apps you use available. So, no Facebook or Twitter (notorious distractors). Get notifications from key work associates only.

Sure, you can ignore these other apps and notifications - if you have a will of iron. Most of us don’t.

 

[smorrissey]

Its a mess feature (at least for me) first i didn't receive notifications until i enabled and disabled the not disturb focus on settings, and now the notifications volume is extremely low and i cand find a way to change it.

 

[doolar]

Not for me, but I think it’s because I have few notifications on by default, and I don’t use any social media. So I have two Focus modes, DnD and Sleep.

My wife would greatly appreciate more modes if she could care enough to set them up. Her phone is a non stop notification machine ??

 

[Apple_Robert]

I use the FOCUS modes. I don’t want to be disturbed by work when at home. Having a FOCUS comes in handy that way. I also set up as Running focus. I don’t use Social Media and they still come in handy.

 

[max2]

No. It is not.

 

[Abazigal]

Do you guys feel the new Focus feature is necessary? Or was the old Do Not Disturb enough?

How easily distracted are you that you need to hide certain home screens during certain Focuses?

I just want to hear some opinions.

I have been playing around with the feature on my iPad. Being a teacher, I like the idea of being able to press a button and getting a custom homescreen for when I am in class and my students not being able to see my entertainment and gaming apps, another button for when I want to mark or record screencasts. They are normally hidden because I don’t want them cluttering up my layout, and appear only when I want them to.

Let’s see how it works out later in school.

 

[PandaPunch]

I made a post about it. It's a good feature, but I don't see myself getting much use from it.

I was hyped for it until I got it, now it's just putting my iPad in sleep mode and I have the generic DND mode on whenever I go to the doctor or therapist so I don't get spam mail or spam calls during medical visits. This is fine.

 

[antiprotest]

I think "necessary" is a strong word. I would say that it is "helpful" for me, since I can fine tune the behavior. For example, DND was all or nothing (except for favorite contacts for Apple apps like Phone, Messages, etc.), but now I can allow certain third-party apps to notify me as usual while silencing all other apps. I had wanted this for a long time before. Say, your family only uses Telegram to text one another. You can turn on the new DND/Focus and silence everything except for Telegram. You could not do that before.

It's not all about the home screens. I don't care about that part at all, as I have only one home screen and the app library. But I can imagine how it can be useful for many people. It is not about distraction either, but convenience. Imagine you have 8 home screens and the app library. Instead of having to swipe 4, 5, 6, times to get to a screen or the app library, you can organize the home screens and eliminate the irrelevant ones in different situations so that you need to only swipe 1 or 2 times to get to your apps or the app library.

 

[MisterSavage]

I think "necessary" is a strong word. I would say that it is "helpful" for me, since I can fine tune the behavior.

Exactly my thoughts also. I have a friend that absolutely loves it. I don't have it enabled. I like that there's options.

 

[MisterSavage]

How easily distracted are you that you need to hide certain home screens during certain Focuses?

There are more uses to Focus than someone who's easily distracted. My friend puts his work apps front and center on his work home page for while at work so they're easily accesible. He doesn't care about those apps at all at home and they're "hidden" while he's not using his work focus.

 

[jz0309]

I think it is useful for some, for me, I got my DND during the night back after some time and that is all I really need. I don’t use social media and I have actively turned notifications off on many apps.

 

[minik]

On previous version of iOS, I never bother with Do Not Disturb because it was too 'basic'. Now there are more specific actions and able to share the Focus status to other on iMessage, I started to use it.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I would like to see a little more granular control with notifications. I would like the ability to decide which app notifications I want sound with during a FOCUS and which ones to be kept off as default.

 

[matrix07]

DND is great, especially "Do not disturbed for this location" option when you force touch it. Is this option still available I have no idea?

But DND doesn't work for all your devices, and Focus is more fine tuned to your activity than DND that works more generally. I prefer Focus. Now for the first time you can have one kind of homepages for work and another for home, and it's awesome.

 

[GSWForever8]

Do you guys feel the new Focus feature is necessary? Or was the old Do Not Disturb enough?

How easily distracted are you that you need to hide certain home screens during certain Focuses?

I just want to hear some opinions.

I use it daily and it’s amazing!

 

[throAU]

Necessary is a strong word. No smartphone features outside of calling are "necessary".

USEFUL would be better. It's way better than do not disturb as it is far more granular.

I like it. A lot.

 

[Ash Pole]

Few users will ever use Focus and virtually no one asked for it. Look at Apple Pay, after 7 years, 94% of US iPhone owners still don't use it.

 

[macOS Lynx]

I will never understand this mentality of "I never use it, so nobody should have it!" that some people have. I find SharePlay and the FaceTime changes to be incredibly useless because I never use it, but I wouldn't take a stance against it.

As far as answering the question, I overall like Focus more than DND. I have a mode for work which silences everyone but work contacts and work apps, because I don't need social media notifications while I'm at work but that doesn't mean I never want them. I also use the Driving and Sleeping ones, and I have a custom one for when I'm focused on a personal project but don't want to use full blown DND. I really like the flexibility. There are a few things I think Focus modes need tweaking on (Auto-reply on all modes, giving the option to hide or show banners with DND, etc.) but overall its a much better change IMO.

 

[gwhizkids]

DND is great, especially "Do not disturbed for this location" option when you force touch it. Is this option still available I have no idea?

But DND doesn't work for all your devices, and Focus is more fine tuned to your activity than DND that works more generally. I prefer Focus. Now for the first time you can have one kind of homepages for work and another for home, and it's awesome.

Yes, the DND functions you mentioned are still there.

 

[gwhizkids]

Few users will ever use Focus and virtually no one asked for it. Look at Apple Pay, after 7 years, 94% of US iPhone owners still don't use it.

Who says every feature has to be used by everyone?

With about 200 million iPhones in use in the United States, 12 million people use Apple Pay (using your stat). Hardly insignificant.

I don’t use “invert colors” but that doesn’t mean Apple shouldn’t include that for those who find that useful.

 

[bettaboy123]

I love it. I even set up the homescreens feature. When I get to work, only my work apps and a couple widgets are there, with only important co-workers able to contact me. When I'm at home, I have a special homescreen that's more entertainment/HomeKit shortcut focused and I get few notifications. In the in between times, I can get few notifications and I have a more travel based homescreen (mobile bus pass, social media, reading, music) along with my bank app and grocery store app.

It's just really nice pulling my phone out and having the best tool for getting the job done quicker while everything else is just a quick spotlight search away. It's also nice to be able to fine-tune notifications so much and have most of them delivered silently to their own separate area.

 

[dyfine]

I think it's decent in some cases. But...they made using it really confusing. It took me forever (and tons of selecting/unselecting option combinations) to figure out how to get the "sleep" shortcut back onto my Apple Watch.

 

[AsherN]

Yes, the DND functions you mentioned are still there.

There? yes. Work? nope. The "Until I leave this location" does not seem to work anymore.

 

[Cashmonee]

It needs some fixes and refinements, but I love it so far! It isn’t really about distractions for me as much as it is about what apps are available at certain times. For example, there are work apps that I want front and center with notifications on while at work. After work? I do not want to know they even exist. So I use a work focus where they are on page 1 and notifying me and a personal focus for home where they are nowhere to be found and dead silent.