Do Not Disturb vs. Silent Mode on iPhone: The Difference and When to Opt for Each Setting

There are plenty of reasons you may want to temporarily mute notifications from your iPhone — say you’re in an important meeting or just need a screen time break. Thankfully, there are two easy ways to go about this on iOS: Silent mode and Do Not Disturb. 

Here’s the difference between each and when it may be best to go with one setting over the other.

Silent mode

The go-to method for silencing your phone is typically going to be the toggle switch that sits above the volume buttons on the left side of your device. Move that toggle down and your phone will silence any pings or incoming phone calls. You’ll see either a confirmation pop up on your screen or, if you have a phone with Dynamic Island, text there indicating you’ve turned on Silent mode. 

If you’ve got an iPhone 15, the toggle switch has been replaced by the Action button, which you can hold down until you feel haptic feedback. (You can also customize the Action button for other commands, like launching your camera or recording audio.)

While the ring/silent switch mutes all alerts and notifications (along with sound effects and game audio), your iPhone may still vibrate when you receive a call. And your screen will light up with the arrival of a phone call or text. You can stop your iPhone from buzzing when in silent mode by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch, then hitting the toggle next to Vibration to turn it off. (Note that this also disables vibrations for earthquake, tsunami and other emergency alerts.) But you can’t stop the screen from lighting up, which brings us to our next section.

Do Not Disturb

When Do Not Disturb is enabled, your iPhone will stay silent and with its screen off, though there are some exceptions and customizations you should know about.

But first, let’s go over the two ways to enable Do Not Disturb. The easiest way is to pull up your phone’s Control Center — swipe down from the upper-right corner of the screen if you have an iPhone X or newer, or up from the bottom edge of the screen on an iPhone SE and iPhone 8 or earlier. Then, tap the crescent moon button to turn on Focus mode. You can also go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb. 

The great thing about Focus modes is you can customize them for different purposes and times of day. Want to block TikTok and Instagram notifications while you’re at work to avoid distractions? You can set that up in a Work focus mode, so you’re getting only critical notifications from work-related apps, for instance. Want to make sure you’re receiving only calls from family members when your Personal Focus mode is on? You can customize that, too. The Sleep focus mode is great for automatically silencing all notifications to prep for bedtime so you’re not tempted to look at your screen.

When Do Not Disturb is on, you can also customize who you receive calls from: Everybody, Allowed People Only (which you select), Favorites or Contacts Only. 

You can also hit the toggle next to Allow Repeated Calls if you want to turn on that setting, which will ring your device if the same person calls again within 3 minutes so you don’t miss any potential emergencies. 

When to choose Silent mode vs. Do Not Disturb

The key distinguishing factor between Silent mode and Do Not Disturb is just how silent you want your phone to be. If you want to mute notifications, calls and texts, but still see them rolling in, turning on Silent mode is probably your best bet. But if you want to fully block all pings and stop your phone’s screen from lighting up for a while, then you’ll want to opt for Do Not Disturb.  

If you generally keep your iPhone out and about — in your hand, on your lap, on a table or desk — then Do Not Disturb is the better option so that your screen suddenly lighting up doesn’t distract other moviegoers, your classmates (or, more to the point, your teacher or professor) or those around you at a religious service, for instance. It’s also just a great way to avoid the temptation of picking up your phone each time a notification comes in.