How to Silence Your iPhone: Do Not Disturb vs. Silent Mode

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Disable sounds and incoming notifications to stop interruptions while you work or sleep

Co-authored by Naseem Speach and Megaera Lorenz, PhD

Last Updated: October 25, 2024 Fact Checked

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Using Silent Mode

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Using Do Not Disturb Mode

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To mute the sounds, vibrations, and lights coming from your iPhone, activate either "silent" or "Do Not Disturb" mode. Silent mode switches to vibrations instead of sounds, while "Do Not Disturb" temporarily blocks all interruptions (including vibrations and lights) from getting through to you. Make sure you adjust and customize the settings of each to get exactly what you want from your iPhone! Read on to learn how, with tips from Tech Expert Naseem Speach.

The Easiest Ways to Silence Your iPhone

To instantly mute notification sounds, flip the Ring/Silent Switch on the left side of your iPhone 15 or earlier to the down position.
On iPhone 15 Pro or later, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and toggle Silent Mode on.
Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Haptics > Don’t Play in Silent Mode to turn off vibrations.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Using Silent Mode

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Understand what silent mode is. The iPhone's silent mode turns off the phone's sound for calls and notifications and causes the phone to vibrate instead. Silent mode is a fast and convenient way to (mostly) silence your phone. ^{[1]
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- Note: an alarm set through the iPhone Clock app will ignore silent mode and go off at the appointed time. Alarms set with other apps may not.
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Flip the Silent/Ring Switch (iPhone 15 and earlier). This switch (also called a "Mute" switch) is located on the upper left side of the phone. Flipping the switch "down" (to silent) will cause the phone to vibrate and will reveal an orange stripe beneath the switch itself.^{[2]
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- The switch's “up” position means the phone's sounds are "on".
- If you enter silent mode when your iPhone's display is on, you will see a “Silent Mode On” notification on your screen.
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Enable Silent mode in Settings on iPhone 15 Pro or later. If you’re using one of the latest iPhone models, your phone doesn’t have a Silent/Ring switch. Instead, there’s an Action Button on the top left side of your phone. To silence your phone, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and toggle Silent on.^{[3]
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- If you like, you can also configure the Action Button to enable Silent mode. Go to Settings > Action Button and swipe through the actions until you see the silent mode icon, which looks like a bell with a line through it. You can now press and hold the Action Button to silence or unsilence your phone.^{[4]
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Adjust your “Sounds" settings to stop your phone from vibrating. To make your phone truly silent, you can stop it from vibrating while in silent mode by going to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Tap Haptics and select Don’t Play in Silent Mode.^{[5]
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- You can also select Never Play if you never want your phone to vibrate.
- You can also toggle off System Haptics in the main Sounds & Haptics menu to turn off all vibrations for notifications and calls.
- This setting will not prevent your screen from lighting up when notifications or calls come in.
If you're still hearing your keyboard keys make noise, you can silence these in Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Tap Keyboard Feedback and make sure both Sound and Haptic are toggled off.
Your phone makes a noise when you lock the screen, regardless of whether it is in silent mode. To turn this sound off, navigate to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and find Lock Sound near the bottom of the menu. Move the toggle from green (on) to white (off) to silence all lock sounds.
If you want to completely turn off all vibrations—including those for emergency alerts—you can do so in your iPhone’s accessibility settings. Go to Settings > Accessibility and select Touch. Tap the toggle next to Vibration to switch it off.^{[6]
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Using Do Not Disturb Mode

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Understand what "Do Not Disturb" mode is. iPhone's "Do Not Disturb" mode temporarily blocks all noises, vibrations, and lights so you can be distraction-free. When your iPhone is in this mode, it will receive calls and messages as normal but will not vibrate, ring, or light up.
- Note: Alarms set in the iPhone Clock app will still sound as normal when your phone is in "do not disturb" mode.
- Many people place their phones in this mode overnight so that they are not woken up by unwanted vibrations, rings, or lights from their phones.
- According to Tech Expert Naseem Speech, if you enable this mode, other iPhone users will be notified that you have Do Not Disturb enabled if they try to contact you.
This brings up the iPhone Control Center.^{[7]
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This button with a crescent moon symbol on the left side of your control panel enables "Do Not Disturb" mode. If the button is white and the moon is purple, "Do Not Disturb" is on. Tap the button again (back to gray) if you'd like to disable "Do Not Disturb".^{[8]
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Enter and exit this mode at set times each day. If the "Do Not Disturb" mode is a feature you use daily, you may program your iPhone to automatically enter and exit this mode at specific times of day. Select Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb, then tap Add Schedule.^{[9]
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- You can set Do Not Disturb to turn on at certain times of the day (e.g., during your regular work hours), at specific locations (like your school, your workplace, or the library), or when you open an app (such as Books or Google Docs).
EXPERT TIP

Naseem Speach
Tech Expert
Naseem Speach is a Tech Expert based in Los Angeles, California. Naseem started his tech reviews YouTube channel in 2020 and has since gained a following of over 34,000 subscribers. He specializes in sharing information about the latest smart home tech, Apple, Samsung, Google, PlayStation, Microsoft, and gaming devices.

Naseem Speach
Tech Expert

A Do Not Disturb schedule is a good option if you don't want to be bothered at night. If you still want certain contacts to be able to reach you after you've gone to bed, you can always add them to your allowed people list or adjust the settings so repeated calls can get through.
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Permit certain phone numbers to interrupt you in "Do Not Disturb". By default, "Do Not Disturb" allows contacts that you've designated "Favorites" to get through and disturb you. You can customize these settings by going to Settings > Focus > Do not Disturb > People.
- Under the Phone Calls header, select Everybody, Allowed People Only, Favorites, or Contacts Only.
- To add allowed people, tap the Add People button with the blue + sign inside. Select people from your contacts who you’d like to add to your list of Do Not Disturb exceptions.
If you like, you can set Do Not Disturb to allow calls through if the caller calls back a second time within three minutes. To do this, go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb > People. Toggle on the switch next to Allow Repeated Calls.
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Allow notifications from select apps. If you’d still like certain apps to send you notifications even in Do Not Disturb mode, you can do so in Settings. Go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and tap Apps. Tap the Add Apps button to select allowed apps. You can also flip the toggle switch at the bottom of the screen to allow Time Sensitive Notifications.
- For even more control over how different apps behave when Do Not Disturb is enabled, go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and tap Focus Filters. From here, you can do things like setting only certain calendars or email accounts to send notifications while Do Not Disturb is active.

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How do I silently dial on an iPhone?

Community Answer

Simply switch the ringer switch at the side of the iPhone to silent. On my iPhone 5s it is in the top left corner but it may differ on later models.

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How do I turn the volume all the way down on my iPhone

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There are 2 buttons on the left side of the phone (when looking at the screen). Press the bottom one until the volume slider is all the way to the left. If this doesn't work, on iPhone 7 and later you can adjust the settings for volume in Settings > Sounds & Haptics. On earlier iPhone models, go to Settings > Sounds.

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How do I take my phone off silent?

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Reverse the steps that you followed, or if you don't remember them, reverse the steps shown here.

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