One Feature at a Time: How to Set “Do Not Disturb” in iOS6

Yesterday was the Day. iOS6 was released.

I’m a cautious updater. I go slow. I usually wait for several days before I even think about it. My logic is that if there are any big bugs, I’ll let others suffer the consequences, and I’ll learn from their experiences.

But yesterday’s release looked like it was going smoothly. And I had made some time. So I hooked up my iPad to iTunes and pushed the update button. (you also have the option to update directly from your device via the cloud).

I enabled the update and held my breath. (I have a love/hate relationship with updates. I love the new features, but I hate the stress of worrying that it might not go smoothly. I do know the root of my worry. It’s because of the 80’s and those old blue screens of death. That blue screen was traumatic. Those days may be gone … but, oh, the scars! But I’m getting better. And this is why I love my Apple goodies …. they behave themselves and have always updated properly for me.)

The update to my iPad 3 was smooth and quick. Now it’s time to start looking closely at the update and learning about the new features.

I think I mentioned that I go slow.

NOTE to my dear Blog Readers: I’ll be exploring one feature at a time, and every few days I’ll toss another here on the blog to look at more closely.
Just ONE at a time. Slow and steady. That’s how we “everyday folks” can cope with all this stuff.

My first feature of interest is the new “Do Not Disturb”.

If you have an iPhone or iPad then you are well aware of the all the notification noises. You get dings and beeps and jingles and jangles. You can put your phone on mute, but then calls are muted, too.

Enter “Do Not Disturb”. This is something I REALLY think I’m going to like.

Here is how you enable “Do Not Disturb” in iOS6:

To turn it on, just go to your settings, look for “Do Not Disturb” and move the switch to “on”. That’s all.

By enabling it, there will be no noises. Even that screen light-up won’t happen.

You can tell it is enabled because you will see a little crescent moon up in the status bar.

Here is the thing that makes this special over the “mute” button:

You can tweek the settings so that people in your Favorites list CAN get through. This means that you can set your phone on “do not disturb” at night but if your children or parents try to reach you during the night, their call will get through (as opposed to just having everything silent with mute.)

You also have the option to allow calls from someone who calls twice within three minutes.

You can turn this on manually, but you can also schedule it to come on during your regular sleep (or work) hours.

When you are ready to “be disturbed” again, just look at your phone. All your notifications will be there, you won’t have missed a thing, but they simply will have arrived without all the noisy fanfare.