iOS 15 kills one of Do Not Disturb’s best features

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Do Not Disturb
Sad face.
Photo: Apple

Do Not Disturb is still available inside iOS and iPadOS 15, despite the introduction of a brand-new and infinitely more powerful Focus mode. But the feature is now missing a key settings option that didn’t carry over from iOS 14.

Users have quickly discovered that Apple’s newest update kills the ability to activate Do Not Disturb only when a device is locked — one of its best features for many iPhone and iPad users.

Do Not Disturb isn’t as good anymore

Focus mode is much more powerful than Do Not Disturb, giving you the ability to create multiple profiles for different activities — like working, sleeping, traveling, and more — that all have their own notification settings.

But for some, Do Not Disturb was more than enough. It silenced all your notifications when it was active and could be quickly toggled on and off, either through the Settings app or Control Center. It could also be scheduled.

Do Not Disturb is still available inside iOS and iPadOS 15, but it’s now missing a key feature that makes it nowhere near as useful for some. It’s no longer possible to activate Do Not Disturb only when your iPhone or iPad is locked.

Focus mode doesn’t make up for it

This setting allowed Do Not Disturb to silence all notifications as normal when a device was locked and its screen was off. It then automatically paused Do Not Disturb when the device was unlocked so that notifications would appear.

“Really surprised they’ve done this, but it appears there is no longer an option in iOS 15 to still show notifications when in Do Not Disturb but unlocked,” highlighted BigPurpleMoth on Reddit. “I don’t want notifications when my phone is locked, but while I’m actively using it I still need them to pop up.”

You might assume Apple made this change because the feature is replaced by its new Focus mode in iOS and iPadOS 15, but there is no way to replicate this setting using Focus mode. Notifications are either on or they’re off.

Many users are unhappy with the change to Do Not Disturb and are hoping it will be reverted in a future software update. The only way to avoid it for now is to simply stick with iOS and iPadOS 14.

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