{"id":11938,"date":"2022-08-09T14:51:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T14:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/09\/the-iphones-focus-mode-almost-kept-me-off-my-phone-on-vacation\/"},"modified":"2022-08-09T14:51:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T14:51:46","slug":"the-iphones-focus-mode-almost-kept-me-off-my-phone-on-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/09\/the-iphones-focus-mode-almost-kept-me-off-my-phone-on-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"The iPhone\u2019s Focus mode (almost) kept me off my phone on vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/8\/23296898\/iphone-focus-mode-screen-time-vacation<\/a>
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Two Fridays ago, just before I left for a week-long vacation to Florida, I went through my pretrip digital routine. I set my Slack status to \u201cVacationing\u201d with a palm tree emoji and paused notifications until further notice. I turned on Gmail\u2019s auto-responder. I deleted a bunch of apps from my phone that would only serve to distract me from poolside bliss.<\/p>\n

The last thing I did was pick up my iPhone and create a new Focus mode. Focus, in case you didn\u2019t know, is a new-ish iOS feature<\/a> designed to let you quickly switch your phone from one context to another. You can set it to shut up your work apps on the weekends, turn off notifications while you\u2019re reading or sleeping, or only alert you to new emails from 9AM to 5PM and not a moment after. It\u2019s really just an extension of Do Not Disturb, but it gives you more specific control and lets you have different setups for different situations.<\/p>\n

My new Focus mode was called \u201cVacation Mode.\u201d The goal was simple: I wanted to make sure people who needed me could reach me and that I\u2019d be alerted if someone stole my credit card or my house burned down. Short of that, I wanted my phone to shut up and leave me alone. And, ideally, I also wanted it to actively prevent me from using it whenever possible.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the reality of Focus falls well short of this idea. The only thing it really controls is your notifications: you can choose specific people whose calls and messages get through and the specific apps that are allowed to light up your phone. This is a good idea; it\u2019s just too much work. You have to manually scroll through all of your contacts and then all of your apps, in alphabetical order, to pick which ones to exclude from the Focus blockade. (The app does offer some AI-powered suggestions in the app picker, but I found them basically useless. No, phone, Vacation Mode does not require calendar notifications.) <\/p>\n

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