What does “Share Focus Status” mean on your iPhone?

Constant access to the internet and simply having your phone with you at all times makes it very easy to always stay connected to the rest of the world. While this is generally a good thing, it can be a hindrance in certain areas of life, especially if you’re trying to squeeze in a deadline or focus on a project that needs your full attention. To ensure that messages from your friends about whether they should get ice cream don’t interrupt you while you’re working, iPhones have a feature called Focus.

This is one of the most useful iOS features you should be aware of because it blocks all non-urgent notifications and calls that would otherwise cause your phone to beep or buzz, making it appear where only the notifications you need appear. This can, however, lead to misunderstandings and missed plans, where your family and friends won’t know if you’ve already seen their message or not. This is where the Focus Status or Share Focus Status feature comes in.

Enabling Focus Share Status ensures that whatever Focus mode you have set up, whether it’s for Sleep, Work, or a Custom Focus, is shared with other iPhone or iMessage users trying to contact you. This way they will know that you are not available and will probably not see their messages.

You can set up Focus mode on your iPhone by opening the Settings app, then tapping To focus. From there, you can choose from one of the existing focus options, set up one that your phone recommends, or tap the plus icon in the top right to create a custom focus mode. You can then tap the Focus mode you want to be in to activate it, set all notification permissions for apps and people, lock certain apps, and open the dedicated home screen. You can check if Focus mode is enabled by seeing if the dedicated Focus icon appears in the upper left corner of your screen, just like a crescent moon means you’re in Do Not Disturb mode.

The functionality to navigate to where your Focus status is shared with anyone trying to message you can also be found here. Below Settings > Focuspress Focus status to enable it, and from there it will show that your notifications are disabled whenever someone with a compatible device tries to contact you.