Can I make my phone silent except for one person?

There are times when we want our phones to be silent and not ring or vibrate constantly, except for notifications from specific important people. Setting up your smartphone to only allow calls and texts from one person provides a way to minimize distractions while still being reachable by your most important contact. The goal is to filter out unwanted disruptions from spam, robocalls, and other non-urgent communications, while enabling alerts from a selected VIP. This allows you to stay focused when needed, without worrying about missing critical messages from your chosen person.

Enable Do Not Disturb

The easiest way to silence your phone except for certain contacts is to enable Do Not Disturb mode. This prevents calls, alerts, and notifications from making sounds or lighting up your screen.

On iPhone, open the Control Center by swiping down from the top of the screen and tap the Focus/Do Not Disturb icon to enable it. You can also enable Do Not Disturb in Settings > Focus. On Android, open the notification shade and tap the Do Not Disturb icon to turn it on. You can also find the setting under Settings > Sounds & Vibration > Do Not Disturb.

Once Do Not Disturb is enabled, your phone will stay silent and won’t light up for new notifications by default. You can then customize exceptions to allow calls or messages from certain contacts.

Sources:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208090

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335

Allow Calls/Texts From Contacts

Both iOS and Android allow you to set up exceptions in Do Not Disturb mode to receive calls and texts from certain contacts. On iOS, you can enable calls and texts from your Favorites contacts.

To do this on an iPhone, open the Contacts app and tap on the person you want to add to Favorites. Scroll down and tap “Add to Favorites.” Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and under “Allow Calls From,” select Favorites. Now calls and texts from your Favorites will come through even when Do Not Disturb is enabled.

On Android, you can star specific contacts to exempt them from Do Not Disturb. Open the Contacts app, tap on the contact, and tap the star icon to mark it as a favorite. Then in Settings, go to Sound > Do Not Disturb. Under “Exceptions,” choose “Starred contacts” to allow calls and texts from your favorites.

This allows you to silence notifications from everyone except a select group of important contacts. It’s useful for eliminating distractions while still allowing urgent communications to come through from your inner circle.

Allow Repeated Calls

Both iOS and Android provide options to allow repeated calls to bypass Do Not Disturb after a set number of calls. This can be useful if you want to silence most notifications, but still be reachable by someone calling you multiple times for an urgent matter.

On iOS 15 and newer, you can enable this under Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and toggle on “Allow Repeated Calls” (1). You can configure it to allow through a second call within 3 minutes. So if someone calls you twice within 3 minutes, the second call will ring through even if Do Not Disturb is enabled.

On Android, this feature is built into the Do Not Disturb settings. Under Settings > Sound & Vibration > Do Not Disturb, there is an option for “Allow repeat callers” that functions similarly. You can set it to bypass DND after the 2nd call within a 15 minute period (2).

This gives users more flexibility to silence most alerts, while still allowing urgent repeat calls to come through when needed. It’s a helpful compromise between complete Do Not Disturb and receiving all calls/notifications.

Set Up Emergency Bypass

The Emergency Bypass feature allows you to assign specific contacts that can always reach you, even when Do Not Disturb or Focus modes are enabled. This ensures certain important people like family members or work colleagues can contact you in an emergency.

To enable Emergency Bypass on an iPhone running iOS 15 or later:

1. Open the Contacts app and select the contact you want to add Emergency Bypass to.

2. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.

3. Scroll down and turn on the “Emergency Bypass” switch.

4. Tap Done to save the changes.

Now when that contact tries to reach you, their calls and messages will come through even if you have Do Not Disturb or Focus modes turned on. You can assign Emergency Bypass to multiple important contacts.

Emergency Bypass overrides all Do Not Disturb and Focus settings. So if you want to be sure certain people can contact you in urgent situations when you are busy, enabling this option for them is highly recommended. But use it sparingly, only for very important contacts you always want to be able to reach you.

(Source: https://www.macworld.com/article/538733/how-to-let-important-people-get-through-ios-15s-do-not-disturb-or-focus-settings.html)

Schedule Down Time

You can schedule Do Not Disturb on your iPhone to automatically turn on during certain times, like when you go to sleep. To do this:

  1. Open the Settings app and tap “Focus.”
  2. Tap “Do Not Disturb.”
  3. Tap “Scheduled.”
  4. Tap the “+” icon to add a scheduled down time.
  5. Set the start and end time when you want Do Not Disturb to automatically turn on.

This allows you to silence notifications and calls during set times like when you sleep or attend meetings. You can create multiple scheduled down times if needed. The scheduled Do Not Disturb will automatically activate within the set start and end times. This provides a simple way to minimize disturbances during your chosen hours without having to manually turn on Do Not Disturb.

Set Automations

One of the most powerful ways to customize Do Not Disturb on iPhone is by creating automations using the Shortcuts app. Automations allow you to automatically enable or disable Do Not Disturb based on triggers like location, time of day, events in your calendar, and more.

For example, you can create an automation to turn on Do Not Disturb when you arrive at work. To do this, open the Shortcuts app and create a new personal automation. Select “Arrive” as the trigger, then choose your work location. Add an action to enable Do Not Disturb, and turn off “Ask Before Running.” This automation will now automatically enable DND each time you arrive at work.

Another handy automation is to turn on DND during events in your calendar. Create a personal automation with the trigger “Calendar event starts.” Select the calendar(s) you want it to apply to. Add an action to enable DND, and again disable “Ask Before Running.” This will automatically silence notifications during calendar events like meetings.

You can also base automations on things like connecting to CarPlay, connecting to certain WiFi networks, sleep schedule, and more. The Shortcuts app provides incredible flexibility to customize Do Not Disturb exactly how you want.

Sources:

Creating a Do Not Disturb Automation in Minutes

Enable or disable a personal automation in Shortcuts on …

Silence Notifications

You can mute notifications from all contacts and apps except for one person on both iPhone and Android phones. This allows you to avoid distractions while still receiving alerts from your chosen VIP contact. Here’s how to do it:

On an iPhone, go to Settings > Focus and select or create a custom Focus mode. Tap People and choose “Allow Notifications” for your VIP contact. Under Apps, select “Allow Notifications” for essential apps like Phone and Messages, while muting notifications from all other apps. Enable this Focus mode when you want to mute all but one contact.

On Android, open Settings and go to Sound & vibration > Do not disturb. Select “People” and add your VIP contact to the “Allowed contacts” list. This will let calls and texts from that person override Do not disturb. You can also customize exceptions for alarms, media, and other preferences. Enable Do not disturb when you want to mute notifications except from your chosen contact.

The key benefit of using Focus modes on iPhone or Do not disturb on Android is that it silences all notifications except from handpicked contacts and apps. This reduces distractions without missing anything urgent from your VIP person or essential apps.

Allow Alarms/Calls

An important thing to note is that even when Do Not Disturb is enabled, alarms and calls will still make noise unless you specifically silence them. According to Apple Support discussions, your set alarms will still go off as scheduled even in Do Not Disturb mode[1]. This is because Do Not Disturb does not block alarms from sounding.

Similarly, calls will still come through unless you enable the “Silence” option in Settings. You can allow calls from certain contacts like favorites or groups. Emergency calls will also bypass Do Not Disturb. So while Do Not Disturb mutes most alerts, it does not completely silence everything – alarms and calls will still make noise for safety and convenience. You need to take additional steps like enabling Silence or allowing contacts if you want alarms and calls to be muted too.

Customize Notifications

There are a few different ways to customize notifications for priority contacts on both iPhone and Android devices.

On Android, you can set a custom notification tone for SMS/MMS messages from specific contacts. Go to the contact’s details in your phone app, tap the overflow menu icon, choose Ringtone, and select a unique tone. You’ll now hear a special alert for texts from that person.

For iPhones, open the Settings app, go to Sounds & Haptics > Text Tone. From here, you can choose unique tones for VIP contacts. Their messages will play that special alert.

Both platforms also allow per-contact vibration patterns, so you can tell who is contacting you without looking at your phone. Android users can further customize notifications by changing the LED light color that flashes for certain contacts.

Overall, while most phones have limited options for per-contact customizations, you can at least give priority alerts to your chosen VIPs.

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