So does focus finally allow me to hide all work related things?

[sqenixs]

I've been waiting for apple to create a feature that allows me to make all work-related apps/emails/notifications/etc. basically disappear from my phone when outside work hours. I am so tired of having to always go into settings and delete my work exchange account or delete apps to get some piece and quiet. Will focus get me closer to my goal of complete segregation between work and non-work?

 

[5425642]

I've been waiting for apple to create a feature that allows me to make all work-related apps/emails/notifications/etc. basically disappear from my phone when outside work hours. I am so tired of having to always go into settings and delete my work exchange account or delete apps to get some piece and quiet. Will focus get me closer to my goal of complete segregation between work and non-work?

hold on, you know that you can make outlook too

 

[BlankStar]

Short

I've been waiting for apple to create a feature that allows me to make all work-related apps/emails/notifications/etc. basically disappear from my phone when outside work hours. I am so tired of having to always go into settings and delete my work exchange account or delete apps to get some piece and quiet. Will focus get me closer to my goal of complete segregation between work and non-work?

In short: yes. And you can make Focus turn on and off automatically based on certain conditions (for example time when you have fixed hours or location if you don't do homeworking, etc).

 

[TruBleu]

Short

In short: yes. And you can make Focus turn on and off automatically based on certain conditions (for example time when you have fixed hours or location if you don't do homeworking, etc).

Only thing I don't like about it is there is no setting to allow notifications from any person (even those not in my contacts), but restrict notifications to certain apps. For example, I would like that my 'personal' focus setting allows me to receive calls from anyone, but not from Outlook and Teams.
Edit: I have submitted this as a suggestion. Perhaps if more people do it, they might look into it.

 

[BlankStar]

The problem is that you can only say: allow these persons/apps. They should add an option: allow all persons/apps but these. Maybe in a future beta.

Edit: I gave the feedback to Apple. Hope more people do it.

 

[MrGimper]

The problem is that you can only say: allow these persons/apps. They should add an option: allow all persons/apps but these. Maybe in a future beta.

Edit: I gave the feedback to Apple. Hope more people do it.

This should be something every OS should support when working with any subset of any data. These things, or everything but these things. These files, or every file but these files. These photos, are all photos except these. These apps, or all apps except these apps. These days or all days except these days. etc etc etc

 

[paulmadejong]

How about the ability to disable my work line (dual sim) during the weekend? Does Focus allow that? Would be a big miss if not I’d say?

 

[mariusignorello]

I’m assuming we can restrict usage of Notify Anyways to a select group of contacts that we trust will use good judgement? I have some friends that are drama queens and definitely don’t need that ability.

 

[dunborg]

Does the focus-function change the page on homescreen?
So if I have a "at home"-homescreen and a "at work"-homescreen focus will swap it automatic?

 

[gwhizkids]

Focus is a great idea.

And 90% of users (maybe more) will never use it.

Watching my own family in action, almost everyone will never go into a setting that requires them to think about things. That’s not a knock on them, its just the way they (and most people) use their phones.

At most, they use the phone “app” (at least my wife does, my children largely do not), Messages, Instagram and Snapchat (kids), Calendar (wife) and email (wife). So they don’t really have anything to break their focus to begin with.

Secondly, they are not going to want to go in and parcel up their lives into chunks. Not enough of a value add to do so. My son might do so, as he used DND when in school. But then he also would not turn DND off when out of school.

I will use it, but I think Apple is getting a bit too granular with this and anything that poses the least barrier to entry will be a showstopper for most people…and that assumes they even know it exists.

 

[mattopotamus]

The problem is that you can only say: allow these persons/apps. They should add an option: allow all persons/apps but these. Maybe in a future beta.

Edit: I gave the feedback to Apple. Hope more people do it.

Agreed. It is almost too cumbersome to set up if you want what you described.

 

[mattopotamus]

Focus is a great idea.

And 90% of users (maybe more) will never use it.

Watching my own family in action, almost everyone will never go into a setting that requires them to think about things. That’s not a knock on them, its just the way they (and most people) use their phones.

At most, they use the phone “app” (at least my wife does, my children largely do not), Messages, Instagram and Snapchat (kids), Calendar (wife) and email (wife). So they don’t really have anything to break their focus to begin with.

Secondly, they are not going to want to go in and parcel up their lives into chunks. Not enough of a value add to do so. My son might do so, as he used DND when in school. But then he also would not turn DND off when out of school.

I will use it, but I think Apple is getting a bit too granular with this and anything that poses the least barrier to entry will be a showstopper for most people…and that assumes they even know it exists.

Could not agree more. Cool feature that 90%+ will never use.

 

[adrianlondon]

To work around what I view as an iOS bug (notifications come in loud, and cause the FaceTime volume to drop for a couple of seconds), I'm currently experimenting with an automation to enable a Focus profile while the FaceTime app runs. This profile basically stops all notifications. I may exempt other calls; not yet decided.

If it works well, it could be useful for me.

As said above though, this isn't something your "average" user would be interested in, or even know it was possible.

 

[Night Spring]

Watching my own family in action, almost everyone will never go into a setting that requires them to think about things. That’s not a knock on them, its just the way they (and most people) use their phones.

Completely agree. I started trying to set up a Focus, and was flummoxed by the amount of thinking I had to do to figure out which notifications I want and which ones I wanted to turn off. In the end, it seems simpler to just turn DND on and off, and that fits my need 95% of the time.

 

[Nhwhazup]

I’m retired now but when working would have loved an easy option not to get work notifications on after work hours and when on vacation. Would have been nice to concentrate on family time without distractions.

 

[tlnargi]

I basically just want personal to disable work stuff but I have to add everything I want instead of things I don’t want. Annoying.

 

[iObama]

The problem is that you can only say: allow these persons/apps. They should add an option: allow all persons/apps but these. Maybe in a future beta.

Edit: I gave the feedback to Apple. Hope more people do it.

I did the same. There should be block lists as well as allow lists. Otherwise, Focus doesn’t really do anything for me.

 

[contacos]

All work related Apps (Outlook, Slack, Teams) I use already have the build in option to automatically go to "mute" or "zZz" at specific times, so I personally just leave it at that instead of having to deal with those new settings of iOS

 

[rorschach]

Focus is a great idea.

And 90% of users (maybe more) will never use it.

Watching my own family in action, almost everyone will never go into a setting that requires them to think about things. That’s not a knock on them, its just the way they (and most people) use their phones.

At most, they use the phone “app” (at least my wife does, my children largely do not), Messages, Instagram and Snapchat (kids), Calendar (wife) and email (wife). So they don’t really have anything to break their focus to begin with.

Secondly, they are not going to want to go in and parcel up their lives into chunks. Not enough of a value add to do so. My son might do so, as he used DND when in school. But then he also would not turn DND off when out of school.

I will use it, but I think Apple is getting a bit too granular with this and anything that poses the least barrier to entry will be a showstopper for most people…and that assumes they even know it exists.

This is what I think about every time people say they want a setting for everything down to the corner radius of the buttons. There's such a thing as too many choices, and Apple generally understands that despite the pushback they get from the minority of super-power users. And when they do add more options they usually try to do it in a balanced way where people who don't care don't have to care.

 

[tmanto02]

Only thing I don't like about it is there is no setting to allow notifications from any person (even those not in my contacts), but restrict notifications to certain apps. For example, I would like that my 'personal' focus setting allows me to receive calls from anyone, but not from Outlook and Teams.
Edit: I have submitted this as a suggestion. Perhaps if more people do it, they might look into it.

This. I need to be contactable via phone by anyone, just want the pesky after hours notifications to go away