Get blocking mode functions on your Android thanks to Do Not Disturb

by Unknown at 1:46 AM
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Most smartphones have a blocking mode, night mode or equivalent that will disable notifications, alerts and incoming calls between certain times to ensure you get a good night’s rest. The Nexus series, for example, doesn’t have this function built-in, but thankfully there are tons of apps for this purpose in the Google Play Store. Do not Disturb is an app with a ton of customizable options you need to keep the ZZZ’s going all night long.

With this app, your Nexus 5 will get something better than blocking mode on Samsung. © AndroidPIT Events and custom settings

This app is like Blocking Mode but one step better, so this app could potentially be seen as a good addition for Samsung smartphones too. Do Not Disturb syncs with your Google calendars and allows you to create customized silent and quiet times for each day of the week. When you’ve marked yourself as busy for a specific event for example, your phone will be silenced during the length of time you’ve allocated to that event.

At night you are able to have everything disabled (except for alarms) as well as schedule each night of the week separately. SMS and call exceptions can be set up when the phone is set to be silent and there’s a built-in responder to let the caller know you are busy and you will call back later. An emergency mode allows calls to get through when the same caller has tried multiple times.

If you’ve forgotten to silence your phone while in a meeting, the app includes an ‘Instant’ tab which presents four options: +5 minutes, +15 minutes, +1 hours and +4 hours. This could prove very helpful, instead of fiddling around with other toggles. You can customize whether or not exceptions are allowed for certain contacts or situations, like for emergencies, as well as set notifications to vibrate instead of ring.

There are three tabs: schedule, instant and options. Tons of choices to match your schedule. © AndroidPITWhitelist contacts

The app includes whitelists of contacts whose SMS and calls are allowed to be received even when your phone is set for a schedule silent mode. There’s a ‘no exceptions’ check box to block even the whitelist contacts. More than one whitelist group can be created as well in order to better work with your day’s schedule, for example if you need to work without interruption from friends during the day but in the evening, choose not to get calls or SMS from work at dinner time.

The free version doesn’t come with whitelists, SMS auto-response, calendar selection and early cancel support, though they are available in the free version on a trial basis for 2 weeks. The premium version costs two bucks and change. Do Not Disturb requires less permissions access than other apps, as it doesn’t acces your SD storage or networks. It does, however, need to be able to read contacts and calender as well as send and receive SMS messages on your behalf.