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Is the new Focus feature worth it?


  • Total voters
    134
  • Poll closed .

mpavilion

macrumors 65816
Aug 4, 2014
1,461
1,072
SFV, CA, USA
Some interesting use cases above... I have a separate work phone, so they don’t apply to me. I just manually turn on DND when I go to bed, and turn it off in the morning, like I’ve always done.
 
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throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,278
7,449
Perth, Western Australia
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.

I use it and i've wanted more granular control over what can interrupt me and WHEN for a long time.

Obviously i'm not all users or even most users, i'm a single anecdotal example, but i think your assertion that few will ever use it is misguided.

Plenty of people want to study/work/sleep and not miss out on things that are actually critical to be alerted on during that time.
 

MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,860
5,762
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.

Do you think that matters to the people that are using Apple Pay and love it?

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.

Me neither. See a lot of hate for the App Library and it's been wonderful for someone like me that has a ton of apps.
 

pk0

macrumors 6502
Oct 18, 2009
311
135
I too have both a work and personal line on my phone. I have all my Apps needed for work set up on one screen. When arrive at work, my Work Focus turns on and I only see Apps I need for work(and some personal ones I access throughout the day) and I only get notifications for apps that I need throughout the day. Then when I leave work, I turn on personal and don't see my work apps/get notifications that I don't need for work. It has been pretty useful for me.
 
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throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,278
7,449
Perth, Western Australia
People not using applepay in the US is more an indictment of the electronic payment situation in the USA than anything else. it is ubiquitous elsewhere in the world. I haven't NOT used ApplePay to pay for something in about 12 months here. I have cash in my wallet from 2019.

The global market is far bigger than the USA.
 

NoGood@Usernames

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2020
263
317
United States
I do appreciate some of the changes that were brought about with the Focus modes, namely the ability to allow specific apps to bypass the DND. I have my phone scheduled to turn on DND at 10 PM and off at 7:30 AM.

The ability to allow alerts from apps (like my alarm system app) to bypass my DND was something that I missed from Android and something that I’ve requested several times from Apple.

That said, now that I work from home full time I don’t really have a need for auto switching focus modes ??
 
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Vlad Soare

macrumors 6502a
Mar 23, 2019
675
652
Bucharest, Romania
Necessary? No. I'm using DND exactly like I did before and have no intention of changing anything in this respect. DND on at 10 PM, off at 7:30 AM, allow favorites. That's all I need. It's perfect for me.
Useful? Yes, I can imagine some use cases for it (none of which happen to apply to me though).
 

warrior30

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2014
75
36
I've personally been converted. When I first had it during the beta release I thought it was overblown and I couldn't get my head round why they would make it so complicated. However, after making constant tweaks I started to change my judgment from being over complicated to Apple letting it be very configurable. Since tweaking it I have found it to be extremely powerful. I've currently set up 3 focus groups, and will be adding 1 or 2 more.

One of the most useful one for me its the kids profile where I let my kids loose on my iPad. Simply switching on the kids focus, hiding homescreens and turning off notification is a god send. I love that you can also set that profile up by the app that you are using, so if my kids suddenly start using YouTube kids, then it switches on Kids focus automatically.

My only bug bear is the notifications are ignored even when you are actively using the device which is something that they gave you an option for pre-Focus. I'm hoping that they 'fix' that in future.
 

big samm

macrumors 68000
Oct 27, 2008
1,508
341
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.

Same here. Im using the fitness and sleep focus and really like the new focus in general. Works great and easy to setup
 

AsherN

macrumors 6502a
May 11, 2016
612
2,763
Canada
So I'm playing with it. I can set a Work focus with the pages I want and set it to come on 0900-1700 M-F. I can set a Not Work focus with a different Home page. Is there a way to 1) tell the "Not Work" to turn on when Work is off or hide my "Work" Home page when that focus is not active?
 

matrix07

macrumors G3
Jun 24, 2010
8,226
4,895
So I'm playing with it. I can set a Work focus with the pages I want and set it to come on 0900-1700 M-F. I can set a Not Work focus with a different Home page. Is there a way to 1) tell the "Not Work" to turn on when Work is off or hide my "Work" Home page when that focus is not active?
Do you need “Not Work” focus? Shouldn‘t that be your normal phone settings?
If you don’t have “Not Work” focus it will be back to your normal phone setting after the specific time for Work focus ends.
 

jonhoy

macrumors regular
Mar 11, 2015
120
45
I haven't found a great use-case outside of the regular DND. I always already pretty on top of notifications, managing which apps I truly do want to see notifications from so I haven't found a good reason to make a new Focus.
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
6,303
5,023
Focus and Notification Summary were about the only things I cared about getting in 15. And liking it a lot.

Fitness Focus to completely silence the phone. DnD at night, but setup to allow Calendar/Reminders to sneak through or text messages from immediate family. Created an "Out and About" Focus for location based silencing (eg. doctor's office, haircut, family meet-up).

And with Notification Summary, most Notifications I'm semi-interested in (most apps are off) go there and report every three hours.

Throw in a call blocker and "Silence Unknown Callers", my phone is pretty much inert and I'm looking at the Notification center or for new badges on apps a lot less these days.
 

MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,860
5,762
And with Notification Summary, most Notifications I'm semi-interested in (most apps are off) go there and report every three hours.

I am absolutely loving notification summary. There were some apps I didn't want to turn notifications off for but they were WAY too chatty. Problem solved.
 
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steve62388

macrumors 68040
Apr 23, 2013
3,100
1,962
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.
Apple Pay is a poor comparison, it's been a success story. The United States lags behind in adopting new payment systems, probably because of the sheer size of the market and it's inertia. It's still using checks (American sp.) and magnetic stripes which most other countries have effectively abandoned long ago.

Apple Pay accounts for 5% of global card sales, and this is in a market of $1 trillion (revenue) of digital payments. Not chump change.

Source: https://qz.com/1799912/apple-pay-on-pace-to-account-for-10-percent-of-global-card-transactions/
 

AsherN

macrumors 6502a
May 11, 2016
612
2,763
Canada
Do you need “Not Work” focus? Shouldn‘t that be your normal phone settings?
If you don’t have “Not Work” focus it will be back to your normal phone setting after the specific time for Work focus ends.
I have 5 home pages, work displays pages 2 and 5, not work displays pages 1, 3, 4 and 5. If I don't have a "not work" focus then that would display all 5 pages.

Also, the GPS automation does not work, or is way too narrow to work in the real world.

What I would love to see is the ability to stack focuses and have the last one that fits get applied. As in:

1 - DND - every day 2300-0700
2 - Work - M-F 0800-1700
3 - Worship - At a particular location
4 - Personal, anytime none of the above applies.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,697
52,580
In a van down by the river
So I'm playing with it. I can set a Work focus with the pages I want and set it to come on 0900-1700 M-F. I can set a Not Work focus with a different Home page. Is there a way to 1) tell the "Not Work" to turn on when Work is off or hide my "Work" Home page when that focus is not active?
Use geo location to automatically turn on the FOCUS you want. It works for me every time. Makes things really simple.
 

cupcakes2000

macrumors 601
Apr 13, 2010
4,038
5,430
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.
I only use one homescreen too. I don’t have a use for focus just yet. I’m experimenting though.
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.
I think most people can agree that the standard use of a smartphone such as an iPhone or that ilk has far surpassed just calling people.
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.
Made up statistics don’t make them real statistics.
 
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AsherN

macrumors 6502a
May 11, 2016
612
2,763
Canada
Are your locations pushed together (so to speak) whereby the GPS often thinks you are next door? If so, that could explain why it doesn't work well.
No, but it often locates me a few doors off. but even before that, under 14, I'd just say "Until I leave this location". tried that under 15 and it would not turn off, even 10s of Km away.
 

smoking monkey

macrumors 68020
Mar 5, 2008
2,364
1,509
I HUNGER
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 don't use social media. So I can't get distracted by it. I only visit about 3 websites regularly and I'm old enough to be able to do what I'm supposed to do when I'm supposed to do it. But if it helps people, then it's all good.

The reason I used Do Not Disturb is if a mate is drunk late night and engaging in a bit of texting logorrhoea, so I turn on DND for him until the morning.
 
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