Do not Disturb (DnD) is a new feature in Android Marshmallow. So, you need update your Android phone or tablet to Android Marshmallow 6.0 or later to use this feature.
In Android Lollipop 5.0, a new notification and interruption system was introduced. You can set up downtime so that only certain interruptions (priority mode) can disturb you in specific time automatically.
Do not Disturb in Android Marshmallow is an extension and improvement to Downtime and priority mode in Android Lollipop.
Some interesting features of Do not Disturb in Android Marshmallow include:
So, Do not Disturb (DnD) in Android Marshmallow actually is a very powerful and intelligent feature. Proper use of this feature can significantly improve your productivity and get more value from your Android Marshmallow devices.
Do not Disturb are enabled automatically based on the automatic rules (e.g., Downtime, events).
You can also manually enable and disable Do not Disturb at any time. So, it is very flexible to use this feature.
To manually enable (turn on) or disable (turn off) Do not Disturb, you need go to quick settings panel. As explained in this page, you can access quick settings panel by swiping down from the top of the screen (status bar, if not hidden) with two fingers, or swiping down twice with one finger. There are no differences on how to access quick settings panel in Android Lollipop and Marshmallow.
In quick settings panel of Android Marshmallow, you can find the Do not Disturb button as shown below.
Tap the Do Not disturb button as shown below to enable it. You will also be asked to select one of three modes:
You can specify the duration for these modes from quick settings panel.
Tap More settings as shown below wills send you to Settings — Sound & notifications —Do not Disturb page.
To disable (turn off) Do not disturb manually, you can use one of the two methods:
Priority mode is the most used feature in Do not Disturb. Very likely, you want to be interrupted only by certain contacts, and/or certain apps.
Priority mode is designed to meet such demands.
To setup (configure) priority mode, you can go to Settings— Sounds and notifications — Do not Disturb.
Tap Priority only allows to configure exceptions for priority mode.
As shown above, you cannot disable alarms in priority mode. In other words, alarms will always interrupt you in priority mode.
For other exceptions you can turn on or turn off by tapping the switch.
Messages and calls are identified based on whether caller is in your contact or not.
Tap Messages or Calls as shown above to get the options:
For apps, you can set individual app notification as Treat as priority if you allow it to interrupt you in priority mode in Settings —Sound & notification — App notifications.
You can set notification for each app in application manager (Settings —apps) as well.
Please refer to this guide on how to set app notifications in Android Marshmallow.
In addition to priority mode, you can also set time based automatic rules. The default automatic rule is called Downtime.
Tap Automatic rules in Settings— Sounds and notifications — Do not Disturb page as shown above.
In Automatic rules page, as shown below you can:
So, with these automatic rules, it is very easy to customize the interruption for your Android Marshmallow phones.
To customize the default Downtime rule, tap Downtime (marked as 1 in the screenshot shown above).
You can enable or disable (turn on/off) Downtime rule by tapping the switch as shown below.
You can also delete the rule using the dustbin button above the switch.
For Downtime, you can customize it by:
As mentioned, Downtime is the default rule. If you need some rules for other time slots, you can create a new one to complement the default one.
Of course, if you want, you can delete any rules including the default ones.
Downtime rule is based on time.
In Android Marshmallow, there is a new default Do not Disturb rule based on calendar events. Do not Disturb will be activated automatically during events (in your calendar)
As shown above, in the automatic rules page, you can tap Events (marked as 2 in the screenshot above) to configure events rules.
As shown below, you can turn on/off the default event rule by tapping the switch.
You can also delete it by tapping the dustbin icon in top right.
For event based automatic rule, you can customize it by (as shown below):
You can tap Where reply is to choose from one of the following 3 types of accepted events:
Please note, the rule will filter events based on your reply.
In addition to the two default automatic rules, you can create your own rules in Android Marshmallow.
In Automatic rules page, tap Add rule (marked as 3 in the screenshot shown above).
You can then specify a name for your new Do not Disturb rule as shown below.
You also need specify the new rule is a:
For time-based rules, you can refer to the default Downtime settings discussed above.
Foe event-based rules, you can refer to the default Event rule settings discussed above.
When Do not Disturb (DnD) is active, you will see the icons in the status bar.
As shown below, the first icon (left) indicates DnD is active, and you are in Priority mode or Alarms only mode.
The second icon indicates the phone is in Total silence mode.
You can use vibrate mode or Do not Disturb to silence any Android Marshmallow phones.
Please read this guide on how to silence Android Marshmallow phones.
If you have any questions or encounter any problems when using Do not Disturb in Android Marshmallow, or setting your own automatic rules (Downtime, events) , please let us know them in the comment box below.
The community will help you.
For any questions or problems with Android Marshmallow, please check our Android Marshmallow Guide page.
If your question is about Android Lollipop, please check out Android Lollipop Guide page.
For other Android guides, please check our Android 101 page.
View Comments
The Automatic Rules option does not exist under DnD in Settings on Galaxy S5 and apparently on other Samsung devices. Any ideas why Samsung nixed it or if they will ever enable it?
I can't find anyone else talking about this, but I would like to have DnD auto-enabled based on my calendar events as discussed here and in many other sources. I can't even get to Automatic Rules much less the Downtime, Events, and Add Rule options, so I can't modify anything related to cal events except to allow notifications from them in Exceptions--very nearly the opposite of what I want!
Samsung only supports DND schedule based on time. Event based schedule was removed by Samsung. You have no choices unless you change to other brands.