The iPhone’s Focus mode (almost) kept me off my phone on vacation

Image: Apple

I went through my pretrip digital routine two weeks before I left for Florida. I paused notifications until further notice after setting my slack status to vacation with a palm tree. The auto-responder was on. I deleted a lot of apps from my phone so I wouldn't be distracted by the pool.

After picking up my phone, I created a new focus mode. If you didn't know, focus is a new feature that lets you switch your phone between contexts in less than a second. It is possible to shut down your work apps on the weekends, turn off notifications while you read or sleep, or only alert you to new emails during the day. It is an extension of Do Not Disturb, but it gives you more control and allows you to have different settings for different situations.

The new focus mode was called vacation mode I wanted to make sure people who needed me could reach me, and that I would be alert if someone stole my credit card. I wanted my phone to stop and not talk to anyone. I wanted it to stop me from using it.

The reality of Focus doesn't meet this idea. The only thing it can do is control your notifications, which include calls and messages, as well as the apps that can light up your phone. It's a good idea, but too much work. To exclude your apps from the focus blockade, you have to manually scroll through all of your contacts. I didn't find the suggestions in the app picker to be useful. calendar notifications are not required for vacation mode.

I allowed phone calls from "All Contacts" and added other apps to the list of allowed ones. There is nothing remotely time-sensitive about the "Time Sensitive" notifications that I get. All notification badges were turned off as well. It wasn't a perfect setup but it meant I'd get all my calls and texts from people I know.

My phone lit up over the course of a week when I turned on vacation mode. I didn't miss a thing and it was wonderful. There are all those notifications in focus mode. They didn't go away. They were grouped on my screen. I found myself bombarded by them whenever I picked up my phone. When I picked up my phone to check the weather, it felt like I was going back to the office, with all the notifications reappearing, and then I would just look at TikTok.

Focus is difficult to get right because of the underlying tension. It is less of a problem for Apple to show you a bunch of stuff you don't want than it is to not show you what you need to see. The feature is permanently stuck in a place of cautious thought. Focus needs to be more aggressive in order for Apple to help users regain control of their phones. Most of the tools are already in use. If Focus integrated with Screen Time, I could say that while I was in vacation mode, only use social media for five minutes a day. Focus should stop notifications completely, instead of just hiding them. As soon as you turn on Focus, you should be able to hide specific apps or things in your homescreen. I don't want my phone to distract me while I'm away. They should all be part of a whole. They shouldn't feel like Rube Goldberg.

Image: Apple

This appears to be where Apple is going. You will be able to set up different lock screens for different focus modes, and it is working on improving the setup process and the recommendations you get along the way. Instead of saying "only these six apps can reach me," you can say "everything but these six apps can reach me." It will be easier to start with Focus modes.

The key to the future of Focus is the new Focus filterAPI, which gives developers the ability to change their apps in response to settings you have enabled or changed. If I want to hide my work events in the Calendar app or silence my work email in Mail, I can do that with the help of Apple's own apps. Apple has suggested to developers that they might want to use Focus filters to let people hide specific accounts, turn off their in-app alert, or even completely change the layout of the app based on what a person is doing. You can imagine a navigation or music app that might want to change as soon as you use it. If your app can surface different content based on context, you may be able to use focus filters to enhance user experience.

It sounds great. In a year, I might be able to turn on vacation mode and have my status change automatically, my auto-responder engage, and all my notifications go away. There are issues with this strategy. One assumption is that developers will build less engaging versions of their app with less notifications and badges. It isn't going to happen. You will have to set the Focus filters for each app separately.

I recommend setting up a few Focus modes. I have one that will turn on whenever I open the app, so I don't get distracted by notifications while I'm reading. The feature is not powerful enough or complex enough to give me control over my phone, but it is a step in the right direction. I am back at work and still in vacation mode. I may keep it the same.