Have you ever just fallen into a deep, relaxing sleep when your phone starts chiming that you have notifications? Especially if you’re part of a group chat, with members around the world, your phone could be beeping all night long.

Some people turn their phone off at night so it won’t make noise. You don’t need to turn your phone off if you know how to use the Do Not Disturb feature. You can turn Do Not Disturb on instantly by using your settings shortcuts:

iPhone – swipe up from the home button to reveal Control Center, (iPhone X – swipe down from top right) tap the Do Not Disturb button.

Android – swipe down from the top and you should see some shortcuts for settings, you may need to swipe down again to see more.

You can also turn on or off the Do Not Disturb by using your voice assistant: “Hey Siri! Turn on Do Not Disturb”, or “Hey Google! Turn on Do Not Disturb”.

Setting a schedule

To keep my phone quiet while I sleep, I want it to automatically turn on Do Not Disturb at 11pm every night, and automatically turn it back off at 7am.

iPhone: Settings, Do Not Disturb, Schedule = ON, then set your times. For more info on iPhone Do Not Disturb settings, like exceptions, bedtime, and driving mode, see the Apple Help.

Android: Settings, Notifications (or Sounds…), Do Not Disturb, Turn on as Scheduled, set your times. For more info on settings like exceptions, rules, and meetings, see Android help on Do Not Disturb.

Don’t miss an important call

Many people don’t want to turn on Do Not Disturb for fear of missing that middle-of-the-night emergency call from their kids. Don’t worry – you can set exceptions so that any call from a specific number will ring even when Do Not Disturb is on. The easiest way to do this is to make all your Favorite contacts be exceptions. You’ll see the Exceptions option in the Do Not Disturb settings.