How to put your phone on vacation mode

By: JD Biersdorfer

Ready to go on summer vacation and want fewer interruptions on your phone or tablet while you're away? Consider setting up a custom Vacation Mode that sends most calls to voicemail and silences notifications from non-important apps, but still allows calls and messages from specific people, as well as alerts from designated apps, to come through. You only need to set up Vacation Mode once and then activate it every time you go out. Here's how to do it.

Using Apple devices

Apple's Focus feature is designed to help limit distractions on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or Vision Pro headset so you can, simply put, "focus." Along with the "Do Not Disturb" setting, which blocks most interruptions with a single tap, Focus has other preset modes, or you can create your own.

On an iPhone or iPad, tap the Settings icon, scroll down, and select Focus from the menu. On the Focus screen, tap the + button in the top right corner and select Customize from the menu. On the next screen, you can give your custom creation a name (e.g., Vacation) and select an icon and color. When you click the Next button, you'll see a list of options at the bottom of the screen to choose from for your new mode. Click the Customize button to continue.

On the next screen, select the people who can contact you and the apps that can send notifications when your phone is in Vacation mode. If you want your family members, your cat sitter, and your landlord to be able to contact you, add them to the list. Similarly, select the apps that can send you notifications, such as your favorite weather and sports apps. (Click the Options menu to configure how silenced notifications are displayed.)

You can choose a more discreet look for your phone's display and set a schedule to automatically activate Vacation Mode at a specific time or in a specific location, such as your beach house. Vacation Mode can be activated manually in Control Center or by asking Siri, your phone's assistant, to turn it on or off.

In the main Focus menu, there's an option to activate Focus mode on all your Apple devices signed in with the same Apple ID. Turn on Focus status to display a note indicating that your notifications are muted when someone tries to send you a message.

Using Android devices

Android modes work similarly and are easily customizable. Open the Settings icon and select Modes from the menu. In the list that appears, tap Create your own mode. (Android also has a default Do Not Disturb mode and some other activity-specific settings, such as Driving and Bedtime.)

On the next screen, assign a name and icon to your mode. Click the Done button to proceed to the next screen. In the Notification Filters area, select the people, apps, and alarms that can interrupt you. The Display Settings section offers options for displaying filtered notifications and how your screen looks while the mode is active.

Once you've set up Vacation Mode, you can assign it an automatic schedule to activate automatically. You can also activate it manually from the mode's settings page by swiping down from the top of the screen and selecting it from the Modes menu in Android's Quick Settings, or by instructing the Gemini assistant to manage it.

Control notifications

If you're not comfortable setting up a Vacation mode and simply want fewer app alerts, simply change how and when you receive notifications. For example, you can limit them to a daily digest.

On an iOS device, open the Settings icon and select Notifications from the menu. Here you can choose how alerts appear on the Lock screen, whether they appear in your daily briefings, and how each app on your phone notifies you (or not). In iOS 18.4 on an iPhone 15 Pro model or later, you can have Apple Intelligence filter your notifications, prioritizing urgent and “important” alerts based on your contacts and app usage.

On newer Android phones, open the Settings icon and select Notifications to access the controls.

Receive emergency alerts

Certain situations, such as dangerous weather conditions, require immediate interruption, even if you're on vacation. Your phone is likely equipped to receive emergency alerts regarding public safety issues from national, state, and local authorities. When enabled, these notifications override any Focus or Mode settings.

To check these controls on an iPhone, go to Settings, then Notifications, and scroll down to the Government Alerts section.

On an Android phone, open Settings, go to Notifications, and click Wireless Emergency Alerts.