Do you have someone who keeps calling and texting you incessantly? Perhaps it’s a friend whose timing is always wrong and who manages to only call you when you’re in class or in a work meeting. And now, you’re wondering if it’s possible to silence notifications for one person.
Well, the good news is that, yes, it is absolutely possible. You can indeed silence notifications for one person. And in case you even want to flip it around, you can silence notifications for everyone BUT ONE PERSON.
Yes, I hear you breathing that sigh of relief as you’ve finally found what you’re looking for. Now, let’s get down to how to do it.
Key Points
- To silence text notifications for one person, long-press a text conversation, then tap Hide Alerts.
- To silence call notifications, open the Contacts app, select a contact and tap Edit, disable the contact’s text tone and vibration, and then choose a silent ringtone.
- With iOS 15 and later, you can silence specific contacts in Focus Mode so their texts and calls don’t bother you.
- When a Focus is linked to your Lock Screen, you can turn it on by simply swiping to the corresponding Lock Screen.
- You can also mute calls from specific contacts by assigning them a silent ringtone.
How To Silence Notifications From One Person On iPhone
Apart from the general silent mode available on mobile devices, Apple uses another feature to help users silence notifications. This is Focus Mode, and it helps you reduce distractions and set boundaries.
When you want to concentrate on a specific activity, you can customize one of the provided Focus options—for example Work, Personal, or Sleep—or create a custom Focus. You can use Focus to temporarily silence all notifications, or allow only specific notifications—ones that apply to your task, for example—and let other people and apps know you’re busy.
When a Focus is linked to your Lock Screen, you can turn it on by simply swiping to the corresponding Lock Screen.
Likewise, you can customize a Home Screen page that has only apps related to a Focus and make that page your Home Screen during that Focus. iPhone also suggests Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that are relevant to the Focus you’re setting up.
Setting Up Focus Mode
- Go to Settings > Focus, then tap a Focus e.g. Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, or Work. For the Focus you select, you can set up the options described in the steps below, but you don’t have to set up all of them.
- Specify which apps and people can send you notifications during your Focus. After you specify which people and apps to allow notifications from, an Options link appears.
- Tap Options, then do any of the following:
- Show silenced notifications on the Lock Screen or send them to Notification Center: Turn Show On Lock Screen on or off.
- Darken the Lock Screen during this Focus: Turn on Dim Lock Screen.
- Hide notification badges on Home Screen apps: Turn on Hide Notification Badges.
- When you’re finished selecting options, tap
at the top of the screen. - To change the Lock Screen to use with this Focus, tap the Lock Screen preview below Customize Screens, select a Lock Screen, then tap Done at the top of the screen.
- To choose a Home Screen page to use with this Focus, tap the Home Screen preview below Customize Screens, select a page, then tap Done. The Home Screen options that appear include the apps and widgets most relevant to the Focus you’re setting up.
- To share your Focus across your Apple devices, tap , then turn on Share Across Devices (you must be signed in with the same Apple ID on all your devices).
After setting up your Focus, you can return to Settings > Focus at any time and change any of the options you chose above. You can also schedule a Focus to turn on automatically or turn it on or off in the Control Center.
When you set up a Sleep Focus, you can also change your next bedtime and wake-up time, or adjust your sleep schedule by tapping Set Up Sleep in Health.
How to Add Focus Filters
When you set up a Focus, you can add app filters that determine what information apps will show during the Focus. For example, you can choose which mail account or which calendar to use during the Focus.
- Go to Settings > Focus, then tap the Focus you want to add filters to.
- Scroll down to Focus filters, then tap Add Filter.
- Tap an app, then select the information from that app you want to use during the Focus:
- Calendar: Choose which calendars you want to show during the Focus.
- Mail: Choose which mail accounts you want to use during the Focus.
- Messages: Choose which message conversations you want to see during the Focus—for example, only conversations from people you’ve allowed notifications from during this Focus.
- Safari: Choose which Tab Group you want to use during the Focus.
- Tap Add to add the filter to the Focus.
How To Use Focus To Silence Notifications For One Person
With the arrival of iOS 16, Apple made several improvements to Focus Mode. Focus helps reduce distractions and lets you zone in on a single thing by filtering notifications based on what you’re doing, and in iOS 16, Apple added even more control in this area.
In iOS 15, you could only choose the allowed apps and allowed people that could break through an active Focus. But in iOS 16, Apple added options to silence notifications from select apps and select people in your contacts, which wasn’t possible previously.
Whether you’re setting up a new Focus or changing the filter options on an existing focus you’ve already created, you can easily set which people you want to silence notifications from. The following steps show you how it’s done.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on “Focus.”
- Choose an existing Focus profile, or tap the + button in the top-right corner of the screen to create a new one.
- If you want to create a new Focus profile, click the plus icon (+) at the top-right to create a custom Focus mode. Give it a unique name and tap “Next.”
- Make sure Silence Notifications From is checked at the top.
- Under “People,” choose “Silence Notifications From” and tap “Add People.” Select the contacts you want to mute. Tap “Done” when finished.
- To activate the Focus mode, access the Control Center on your iPhone, long-press the Focus toggle, and pick the newly created Focus mode. Your iPhone will now automatically silence calls from the selected contacts while this Focus mode is active.
Remember, you can easily deactivate Focus mode whenever you’re ready to resume normal call reception. Also, while your Focus status can be synced across all your devices, bear in mind that silence lists will not be supported on other devices unless they have been updated to iOS 16.
Allow Or Silence Notifications From Specific Apps During A Focus
- Go to Settings > Focus, then choose a Focus—for example, Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, or Work.
- Tap Apps (or tap Choose Apps), then do one of the following:
- Allow specific apps: Tap Allow Notifications From, tap +, then select apps.Silence specific apps: Tap Silence Notifications From, tap +, then select apps.
You can also turn on Time Sensitive Notifications, which allows all apps to send time-sensitive notifications immediately.
Silence Notifications From One Person With The Silent Ringtone Method
Another way to mute calls from specific contacts is by assigning them a silent ringtone. Follow these steps:
- Open the Contacts app on your iPhone and choose the contact you want to mute.
- Tap “Edit” at the top-right of the contact’s profile.
- Scroll down and select “Ringtone.” Then tap “Tone Store” to find a silent ringtone. Choose the silent ringtone’s price and select “Assign to a Contact” from the prompt.
- Pick the desired contact from your list and tap “Set as Ringtone.”
How To Silence Notifications For One Person On Android
In case you’re an Android user and you were wondering if I’ve been focusing too much on Apple, fear not; there is a solution for you too. And while it might not be as elegant as Apple’s Focus Mode, it still gets the job done.
Below are the steps:
- First, clear data for the Messages app. To do this, long press the Messages icon, tap (i) on the pop-up, tap “Storage & cache”, tap “Clear storage”, and tap OK on the dialog that appears. This will not clear any of your conversations, so you don’t need to worry about that.
- Now, open the conversation for which you want to receive a notification.
- Tap 3 dots in the top right corner, tap “Details”, and tap “Notifications”. This will create a custom notification category for that conversation. Do this for all conversations from which you want to receive notifications.
- Now, long press the Messages icon, tap (i) on the pop-up, tap “Notifications.” You will see notification categories created for those conversations.
- Tap the “Incoming messages” category under “Default settings”, and turn notifications for it to OFF.
Basically, what this does is that it separates out the conversations from which you want notifications. Any other conversations are assigned to the default category, for which you already turned off notifications.
If you want, you can also customize the individual notification categories (for conversations that you created above) by setting a notification tone for them.
Silencing notifications for one person
Will The Other Person Know If I Silence Their Notifications?
Unfortunately, the one drawback of Apple’s Focus Mode is that it alerts other Apple users who are trying to message you that you’ve silenced your notification. They will see it as an in-message notification that says “John has notifications silenced“.
However, if you’re the one trying to message someone and you see that they have their notifications silenced, don’t assume they’re trying to avoid you. Nor does it mean they’ve blocked you. People silence their notifications for all different types of reasons, especially for work and sleep. It also allows them to focus on other things without the notifications on their phones interrupting them.
Once the person switches off DND or whichever Focus they’ve engaged that silences notifications, you will be able to resume normal communication.
How To Notify Someone Anyway With Notifications Silenced
When someone has their notifications silenced, you can usually still notify them anyway with the Notify Anyway feature.
- On your iPhone, go ahead and text someone even if their notifications are silenced.
- Tap the purple text that says Notify Anyway.
Once you do this, the message will do a little animation to emphasize that it has been sent with a notification to the recipient.
However, if someone has their iPhone silenced for whatever reason, they may be upset that they’re being disturbed. Additionally, they may not be able to respond.
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