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Dear PC Doctor:
I love the Do Not Disturb feature on my iPhone. It silences calls, alerts, and notifications while my screen is locked. At night, I set it so that only my favorite contacts (my kids!) will ring through. I can sleep soundly, knowing that robo calls won’t wake me up but, if my family needs me, they can reach me.
I was telling a friend about this – they were wondering if there’s a similar feature for Android phones. I told them I’d ask you!
Thanks,
Peaceful Sleeper
Dear Peaceful:
Yes! It is also called Do Not Disturb. With Do Not Disturb, you can silence all notifications, sounds, and visual disturbances. It also lets you restrict incoming calls, only letting important people through.
To enable Do Not Disturb, swipe down from the top of your screen to open the notification shade and select the Do Not Disturb icon. Tap to enable Do Not Disturb using your predefined settings. If you want to make changes to your settings, long tap on the Do Not Disturb icon to go into the Settings menu. From the Settings menu, you’ll see three sections: Behavior, Exceptions, and Schedule. You can also arrive here by tapping on the Settings gear icon in the notification drawer, then tapping on Sound > Do Not Disturb.
In the Behaviors section, there are two options. In Sound & vibration, you can add exceptions for what should be muted: Alarms, Media, and Touch sounds. Toggle each one to make sure they work in Do Not Disturb mode. The second option is Notifications. You can hide just sound from notifications or you can hide visual and sound interruptions. Tap on the gear icon next to Custom to make additional changes.
Exceptions, the second section, is where you can configure exactly who can reach you while Do Not Disturb is turned on, and there’s an option to make it starred contacts only. You can customize starred contacts in the Contacts app of your phone, or just look below to the Starred contacts section to set it up.
I hope this helps!
Until next time,
Happy computing!
PC Doctor
Editor's Note: Questions should be directed to PC Doctor, care of the Athol Public Library, info@athollibrary.org or Athol Public Library, 568 Main St., Athol, Mass. 01331, or dropped off at the library.
Posted: to Athol Library News on Mon, Jan 6, 2020
Updated: Mon, Jan 6, 2020