IOS – How to make iPhone silent for a specific amount of time

automationiosiphonesound-volume

On Android phones, there are apps (not native functionality) to make the phone silent for the next N minutes starting right now. This is different than setting specific times of day like Do Not Disturb does.

The functionality I'm used to takes one of two forms:

  • An icon you click that then asks "how long should the silence last"
  • Or, automatically detect that I turned off the sound to zero (via volume rockers or otherwise); and asks the same thing.
  • However, I'm not dogmatic, if iPhone has some other approach to solve this problem I'm open to exploring it.

Is something like this available on iPhone? (6, OS version 10 if it matters).

I prefer native functionality if it exists. Otherwise, an App store app is OK as long as it's free (as in gratis) doesn't require jailbreaking and works on iPhone 6.

Extra plus if it supports both modes described above (trigger with the icon or with setting volume to zero); as well as supposed 100% silence or vibrate-only mode.

Best Answer

As of iOS 12, there are now built-in options for Do Not Disturb that you let you set it in a more granular or "smarter" way. If you go into Control Center and long press on the Do Not Disturb icon, you're now presented with four options:

  • For 1 hour
  • Until this evening
  • Until I leave this location
  • Until the end of this event

There are also two other modes available in Settings > Do Not Disturb:

  • Do Not Disturb While Driving: this will enable Do Not Disturb either automatically (based on detected speed) or whenever you're connected to your car's Bluetooth. You can also turn this on and off manually from Control Center
  • Do Not Disturb During Bedtime: this is an additional option to scheduled Do Not Disturb that will also dim the lock screen and send all incoming notifications to your history (so you can review them after DND ends)

Short of using a Siri shortcut, I don't think there's any way to set Do Not Disturb for an exact number of minutes, but the above options will probably cover most situations in which you'd want to do that.

Related Question