Why is this 3-year-old iOS feature one of my favorite things about the iPhone?

Apple’s latest software update for iPhone — iOS 18 – this is very important. Among the more customizable home screens, a major Control Center updateand all the new Apple Intelligence features, there’s a lot to like about this year’s iOS update.

However, as I use iPhone 16 I’ve noticed that one of the iOS features I’ve used the most over the last few weeks has nothing to do with the iOS 18 update. Instead, it’s an iOS feature that was introduced more than three years ago and remains one of my favorite iPhone features year after year. Yes, I’m talking about Focus modes.

How do I use Focus on my iPhone?

Apple introduced Focus modes to the iPhone as part of the iOS 15 update in 2021. The idea behind these is simple: you can use different Focus modes depending on what you do during the day. For example, your Game Focus mode, Reading mode, Vacation mode, etc. it could be.

You can have multiple Focus modes and customize them as you wish. There’s no right or wrong way to use focus modes, but after using this feature diligently for the last three years, I’ve found a method that fits perfectly with the way I use my iPhone.

Why? My Business Focus mode is automatically activated between 9am and 5pm every weekday. When it’s on, I only get notifications from three people (my partner and my parents) and only allow notifications from a select handful of apps, including Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and my banking apps. Pretty simple stuff so far. But the real magic of Work Focus is how it transforms my iPhone home screen.

When My Work Focus starts, my iPhone home screen completely changes. Instead of my usual home screens filled with time-wasting apps like NFL Fantasy, Letterboxd, and Duolingo, they were replaced with a single home screen dedicated to my work.

On my single work-focused home screen, I have eight apps (Teams, Asana, Parse.ly, Apple News, Notes, Feedly, Authy, and X/Twitter) plus two widgets, one of which displays my daily reminders. I also have a clock widget that shows various time zones where different Digital Trends employees/contributors are located.

Apple has let you link home screens to Focus modes since the feature was introduced three years ago, and if you ask me, that’s the best part of using Focus modes on iOS. It’s great to have my work apps/widgets where I need them throughout the workday, and once the clock strikes five my iPhone reverts back to the usual non-work-centric setup I prefer when I’m off the clock.

It’s such a simple thing, but I also find it so valuable. When it’s time to work, I can look at my phone and instantly access work messages, emails, etc. When it’s time to log off for the day, all my work apps disappear and my home screen shows all my non-favorite apps again. business applications. Great.

There’s nothing like it on Android

Some android phone For years, manufacturers have tried to copy Apple’s Focus modes, but unfortunately none of them have copied the part that I find most useful.

Samsung, for example, has a Modes feature that looks, at least visually, lifted directly from iOS. During modes, you can customize notification preferences and associate specific wallpapers with them. But you can’t Connect a Mod to a customized home screen.

OnePlus finds itself in a similar boat. OnePlus phones have a Zen Space app that lets you create “spaces” with allowed apps and customized wallpapers/backgrounds that you see when the space is active. But once again, these cannot be associated with home screen layouts.

Frankly, it’s shocking that no one in the Android space has replicated this yet. Many Android phones to try They want to have their own version of the iOS Focus mods, but they forget to include the one feature that makes it so useful to me.

Still one of my favorite iOS features

I don’t actively think about Focus modes when using my iPhone throughout the day. It becomes my home screen when I’m working. When I’m not, I have my “normal” home screen setup. Everything works perfectly in the background, so it’s not something I pay too much attention to.

This might not make Focus modes all that exciting to talk about, but I think that’s exactly why they’re such a useful feature. Three years ago when my iPhone got iOS 15, I spent about 20 minutes configuring my Work focus the way I wanted, and since then it’s been an integral part of how I use my iPhone every day.

This is the kind of feature I hope to see more of from Apple. The company is throwing a share it’s currently on the wall with Apple Intelligence – so be it Writing Tools, genmojior something else. Not all of these will be permanent, but hopefully this influx of new AI features will lead to something as practical and functional as Focus modes. All these years later, it remains one of my favorite things about my iPhone.