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While Apple Intelligence may offer a lot, such as Image Playground and Writing Tool, these are not features you would use on a typical Tuesday. However, there is one feature of Apple Intelligence that I find myself using every day.
What is “Reduce Interruptions” in Focus Mode (and Why It’s Great)
Whether you use a preset or a custom one Focus modeboth will help you silent notifications on your iPhone or Mac and concentrate. While you can configure these Focus modes to let you receive notifications from specific contacts and apps, there’s always the chance you’ll forget someone and an important notification could slip through the cracks.
That is why the Focus Reduce Interruptions Mode introduced with Apple Intelligence is perfect and helps to minimize the frequency of such situations. It uses a function called Breakthrough Intelligence & Silencewhich relies on AI to determine if a notification is important.
If it is considered urgent, you will be notified. Otherwise, it will be silent. For example, I received a notification from my mother saying she was on her way to the hospital. It was marked as Perhaps importantso I was informed.
On the other hand, notifications from applications like Netflix, such as alerts about new releases, have been automatically silenced.
What makes Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode so great is that you no longer have to constantly customize your Focus Mode settings or manually decide who or what can alert you. Instead, you can rely on your device’s AI to determine what really needs your attention and what can wait.
How to enable “Reduce Interruptions”
Since Focus Reduce Interruptions mode relies on Apple Intelligence to filter notifications, your device must be compatible with Apple Intelligence.
This feature works on iPhones with the A17 Pro chip or later, iPads with an A17 Pro or M1 chip or later, and Macs with the M1 chip or later. If your device is compatible with Apple Intelligence, make sure it’s running iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1 (or later).
Once you’ve sorted all that out, make sure you’ve turned on Apple Intelligence on your device. To do so, head to Settings on your iPhone or iPad or System parameters on your Mac, then choose Apple Intelligence and Siri. Then, hit Turn on Apple Intelligence.
Since Focus Mode Reduce Interruptions works like any other Focus mode, activating it is quite simple. On an iPhone or iPad, swipe from the top right corner of your screen to access the Control Center of your device. So, touch Focusand select Reduce interruptions.
You can do the same on your Mac by clicking the Control center icon in the menu bar, select it focus, and choosing Reduce interruptions.
You can also customize the mode the same way you would with any other Focus mode. Go to Settings > Focus > Reduce Interruptions on your iPhone or iPad.
Similarly, on Mac, go to System Settings > Focus > Reduce Interruptions.
From here, you can decide which people and apps can get in the way (even if their notifications aren’t urgent), set to turn on automatically at specific times, locations, or while using certain apps, and add Focus filters to adjust how apps and your device behave.
Change another Focus Mode to “Reduced Interruptions”
If you’re like me and already have custom Focus modes set up, the best part is that you can make them behave like Reduce interruptions way
Go to Settings > Focuschoose your desired Focus mode (or System Settings > Focus on a Mac), and turn it on Breakthrough Intelligence & Silence.
The Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode mainly does an exceptional job of filtering notifications and determining the urgent ones. However, there have been a few cases where notifications that I didn’t classify as urgent have gone through.
It’s no surprise since the AI does all the work! However, it’s been a game changer for me, and if there’s one Apple Intelligence feature I’d recommend turning on, it’s this one.
