How Do Not Disturb and Notifications will change in iOS 12

As part of an overall move to give us more control over how we decide to use our devices, Apple has added some fantastic Do Not Disturb and notification features coming to iOS 12 this fall. You'll have more control over keeping your iPhone silent while you work and sleep, and manage notifications quicker without even having to unlock your screen. Here's how Do Not Disturb and notifications will change in iOS 12.

• New Do Not Disturb features
• New Notification features

New Do Not Disturb features

Do Not Disturb prior to iOS 12 lets you schedule a specific time frame for the silencing feature to turn on and off. You can also manually enable it. That's about it.

In iOS 12, a few new features makes Do Not Disturb more robust and helpful for avoiding device distractions.

To access these additional features, 3D Touch or long press on Do Not Disturb in Control Center.

Sometimes, you just need to quiet your phone for an hour, but if you're anything like me, you'll forget that you turned on DND and miss important messages hours after your quiet time has ended.

Apple has fixed that with the upcoming iOS 12. You can set your iPhone and iPad to silence notifications, messages, and calls for one hour. After your 60 minutes are up, DND turns off automatically.

If you're going to be busying for a while, like maybe you're studying for a big test or you're at a party, you can turn on Do Not Disturb for a portion of the day.

Depending on when you access Do Not Disturb, you'll see the option to turn it on until the afternoon, evening, or the next morning.

Thanks to a little help from Geofencing, you can turn on Do Not Disturb until you leave your current location. I'm not sure of the exact geofence radius, but when you leave your current location, Do Not Disturb will turn off automatically so you don't have to worry about turning it back on.

This is great if you're at the movies or a romantic dinner and don't want your phone distracting you for the entire time you're there.

In iOS 12, Do Not Disturb automatically syncs with the built-in Calendar app. If you're at an event that is on your Calendar when you pop in to the DND options, you'll be able to turn on the feature for the length of time specified in the event.

It's perfect for meetings. Don't make your boss cranky by checking your phone every few minutes and don't make your partner cranky by forgetting to turn Do Not Disturb off after you're done with the meeting.

9to5's Guilherme Rambo noted in a tweet that passes you add to Apple Wallet will also sync with Do Not Disturb. If you purchase movie tickets from Fandango and add them to Wallet, Siri will suggest that you turn on Do Not Disturb while your at the theater.

Another awesome feature coming to Do Not Disturb in iOS 12 is Bedtime Mode.

When Do Not Disturb Bedtime Mode is enabled, calls and notifications are silenced and notifications will be sent to History.

Plus, the screen dims and you won't see any notifications on the Lock screen. So if you wake up in the middle of the night and tap your screen to see the time, you won't get FOMO (fear of missing out) when you see that you have a bunch of notifications waiting for you. You'll see them when you get up and Bedtime Mode turns off.

Bedtime Mode is in the Settings app under Do Not Disturb. You can toggle the Bedtime Mode switch on and it will set during your scheduled DND times (If you don't have a scheduled timeframe for DND, you won't see Bedtime Mode).

New Notification features

Those pesky notifications. We need them, but the rule our lives. We are glad to stay connected to things that are important to us, but feel compelled to check our phones or respond when we hear that chime or see that message.

In iOS 12, we'll be able to control the notifications we get much easier. Plus, with Siri Suggestions, we'll get smart recommendations on how we receive them.

In iOS 12, our multiple notifications are finally grouped into stacks, organized by apps. So, when you get five notifications from one app while you're in a meeting, you won't have to scroll down for days to see everything from one app.

Want to see who's emailed you, but don't want to check your Twitter DMs just yet? No problem.

Don't even want to deal with Facebook right now? No problem. Swipe to clear all notifications from Facebook while keeping your others intact.

When you tap on a notification stack from a specific app, you can read and respond to them individually. You can also swipe to manage or clear the whole stack at once.

All of this is done right on your Lock screen. You can address, clear, or manage your notification without having to unlock your iPhone.

It's great that you can see, and even address some Notifications right on the Lock screen (like responding to a text message). But, in iOS 12, you can do even more.

When you swipe to the left on a notification, you can now select to manage notifications. When you tap Manage, you'll be given the option to Deliver Quietly, turn off the app's notifications entirely, or tap into the app's notification settings to customize how you want notifications sent going forward.

For devices with 3D Touch, when you pop into the notification details, you can also access this management feature by tapping the three dots in the upper right of the notification window.

Your entire notification process has a new style and its called Deliver Quietly.

In iOS 12, you can set your notifications to be "delivered quietly" when you manage them.

When you have Deliver Quietly enabled, notifications from that app will appear in Notification Center, but not the Lock screen. You'll also still see the badge app icon, but you wont get a banner alert or hear any sound when the notification is delivered.

It keeps you from getting FOMO, but isn't as distracting as having full notifications turned on.

With improved Siri Suggestions in iOS 12, you'll get a little extra help managing your notifications. If you keep getting notifications from an app that you really don't use anymore, or at least don't respond to notifications for, Siri will ask whether you want to keep receiving them. You can select to keep or manage notifications from the app.

Anything else?

Do you have any questions about how Do Not Disturb and notifications work in iOS 12? Put them in the comments and I'll help you out.