It’s one of the great new features of iOS 15: Focus. This gives you much more control over the notifications you receive. The Focus feature will be a lot more useful as WhatsApp will support it soon too.
WhatsApp Focus
WhatsApp just released its latest software update: version 22.2.75. It contains all kinds of new functions, including Focus. It may take a while before the option is available to all users, because WhatsApp says that Focus will be rolled out sometime in the coming weeks.
Focus is a new feature of iOS 15. With the option you control when you see which notifications. For example, you can set a Work focus for your work. When you’re at the office, only colleagues and work-related apps can disturb you with notifications. You can create the Focus Personal for your home. Everyone is allowed to disturb you – except everything that has to do with your work.
Focus has not been very practical until now, because WhatsApp did not yet support the function. This way, all your contacts could still reach you via WhatsApp, even if you had set a certain Focus.
You can also make your set Focus visible to others. For example, if you have ‘Do not disturb’ turned on and someone wants to send you a message on WhatsApp, the messaging service will show a notification with ‘For [naam] notifications are silenced’. That way others know that your notifications are being silenced. Optionally, you can turn off sharing your focus status.
Create a Focus
You can create a Focus by opening the Settings app and going to ‘Focus’. In the main menu you will find four default options: Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep and Work. Tap one of the focuses to configure it, such as ‘Work’.
Then you indicate which people are allowed to disturb you during the Focus status. You do the same with the apps. You can also activate the ‘Time sensitive notifications’ option. With this, Focus uses artificial intelligence to determine whether a notification should be shown immediately, even if you have a focus on.
More WhatsApp Features
In addition to support for Focus, more new features are coming. WhatsApp, for example, is testing the ability to display a user’s profile picture when they send a notification. There will also be additional settings to manage responses and you will be able to pause while recording a voice message.
More of these kinds of iPhone tips? Sign up for our newsletter: