Have you ever opened an iMessage chat thread and seen the text label “Contact has notifications silenced”? Do you want to know if quiet notifications are muted or blocked? Neither of the two is it. The recently added Focus status feature is the reason of this warning.
Now let’s examine Focus Status and how it contributes to the iOS “Has notifications silenced” statement. You will discover how to switch it off as well.
What Is Meant by Contact Has Notifications Silenced in Messages?
When a user selects one of the Focus modes on their iPhone, such as Do not disturb, Reading, etc., it indicates that they have hushed their alerts. However, it doesn’t reveal to others which Focus is active. Your contacts that you have spoken with on iMessage will see this label. In a similar vein, you will see this label for others if they have it enabled on their end.
In essence, Apple uses Focus modes to allow you to turn off notifications on your iPhone. Focus is a collection of personalized notification profiles (such Do Not Disturb, Driving, Sleeping, Fitness, etc.) that let you disable notifications on your iPhone according to the parameters you define. The notification that reads, “Contact has notifications silenced,” is brought on by these Focus profiles.
You may be asking yourself how now. Basically, the Share Focus Status capability is available in all of these Focus modes. This setting lets other people know that your iPhone is in one of the Focus modes. And it accomplishes so by displaying in iMessage the label “has notifications silenced.” This is done to ensure that the recipient of the message won’t become anxious or fearful if you don’t respond right away.
It may occur to you that I have never enabled the Share Focus status function. All Focus modes have it activated by default. It can be disabled as indicated below.
How to Remove the Message “Has Notifications Silenced”?
You are powerless to remove this designation from a contact if you see it. The contact has turned on Focus more on their phone, as mentioned above. The message will only vanish if they switch off the mode. However, you have the Notify nonetheless option just below this label if you would like to send someone with this label an essential or urgent message. Even if their phone is in Focus mode, they can still tap on it to send the message.
However, you may stop it by disabling it completely in iMessage or by turning off Share focus status in Focus mode if users are seeing this message in your chat thread.
1. Disable the Share Focus Status.
For every Focus mode, there is an independent focus status that can be enabled or disabled. Let’s say you wish to disable it for Sleep Focus but share the Focus state for Do Not Disturb Focus. If that’s the case, you need to turn it off for Sleep Focus, as seen below.
Turn off Focus Status in iOS 17/16
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Select Focus > Status of Focus.
- Disable the toggle by the selected Focus profile. Alternatively, to disable Focus status for every profile, switch off the Share Focus status at the top.
In iOS 15, turn off Focus Status.
- On your iPhone, open Settings and select Focus.
- To turn off the focus status, tap the focus mode in question.
- On the following screen, tap Focus Status to disable the toggle.
2. Disable iMessage’s Focus Status
You can disable the Focus status for iMessage directly, rather than disabling it for each Focus separately.
To access Messages, navigate to Settings. Switch off the Focus toggle.
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3. Turn off Focus Status for One Contact
You can disable the Focus status for certain contacts to prevent them from seeing the “has notifications silenced” notice. To accomplish this, open the Messages app, choose their contact’s name at the top of the message thread, then press to reply. Disable the toggle that indicates the Share Focus status.
4. Turn off Focus Mode
Finally, you should disable Focus modes if you don’t like them. By doing this, the “Has notifications silenced” message will vanish and the Focus status will be turned off.
In iOS 17/16, you can disable a Focus mode by opening Control Center, then tapping on the Focus icon that is currently active.
Navigate to Settings > Focus in iOS 15. On the following screen, tap the preferred Focus mode to turn it off. Understand alternative ways to disable iPhone‘s Focus mode.
Fix: Silenced Notifications Won’t Go Away
Make sure to disable the Shared Across Devices setting under Settings > Focus if the “Has notifications silenced” notice persists. Your Focus modes and status will be shared with other Apple devices that share the same Apple ID when this option is enabled.
You should restart your phone after deactivating the Focus status if it still appears in your conversation threads after doing the aforementioned fixes.
Advice: Add the person in question to the list of individuals who can use Focus modes if they are the only one seeing the notice “Has notifications silenced” for your chat. Or use the Messages app to start their talk. Toggle off the Share focus status toggle by tapping on the contact’s name at the top.
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Fix: Greyed-out Focus Status
Enabling the Share across devices setting under Settings > Focus is necessary if your iPhone’s Share Focus status is greyed out or not functioning at all. For this to function, your iPhone and other Apple devices must also have the iCloud account linked to them.
Recognize iOS Notifications: In addition to Focus Status, your iPhone has other interesting notification options. View our comprehensive guide for an explanation of every iOS notification setting. Check out our troubleshooting post if your iOS alerts aren’t working to resolve the issue.
