[Contact] Has Notifications Silenced in Messages
Reading Time: 3 minutes Do you see a message with a crescent moon icon saying “[contact name] has notifications silenced” in the Messages app? You may wonder what this means. In this article, I will try to explain what a “notifications silenced” message means.
This message may be displayed when you want to send messages to a friend using the Messages app if your friend has Focus enabled. Here is how this works:
What does “Notifications Silenced” in Messages mean?
As I stated above, this means that the recipient of your message is using Focus and she or he has notifications silenced. If you are using this feature, then your friends may see this message when they message you.
Here is how this works:
1. Stacey turned on Do Not Disturb. Do Not Disturb is a part of the Focus modes. If you want to learn more about this, see our article: How to Change your Do Not Disturb on iPhone after iOS 15 Update
2. I want to send a message to Stacey. I open the Messages app, and I will see the “Stacey has notifications silenced” message. A crescent moon icon will also appear. See the screenshot below:
3. When I send a message, a small “Delivered Quietly” note will appear indicating that Stacey received the message but her notifications are silenced. See the screenshot below:
4. As you can see in the screenshot above, you will also see a message saying “Notify Anyway“. If I really want to deliver the message and make sure that Stacey sees this message, I can tap this message. When I tap this, this will bypass Focus and the message will not be silenced. Depending on Stacey’s settings, her phone may vibrate or ding letting her know there is a new message.
Disable “Notifications Silenced” message
Some people may not want to show this notifications silenced message. You can do that if you want. This way even if you are using Focus, your friends will not see the Notifications Silenced message. In other words, others will not know that you have notifications silenced.
If you want to do this, you will need to turn off “Share Focus Status”. On your iPhone, follow these steps:
- Tap Settings.
- Tap Focus.
- Select a Focus mode.
- Under the Options section, tap Focus Status.
- Toggle off “Share Focus Status”.
When you turn off “Share Focus Status”, your friends will not see the “notifications silenced” message.
See also:
- Difference between Do Not Disturb and the iPhone Silent Switch
- Do Not Disturb Not Working on Mac, Fix
- iPhone Vibration not Working? How to Fix
- Silent Switch Randomly Turning On/Off on iPhone 12
- iPhone Silencing your Calls? How to Fix iPhone not Ringing Problem
- Calls Go Straight To Voicemail Without Ringing, Fix
I had family members that were getting this same thing when texting me that my “Notifications are silenced”, & the option to send their message to me “softly” anyway. I’ve gone thru all of the tips I deleted all focus settings and never use the do not disturb mode. My phone is still giving my sister the same notification when she sends me a text. I have an iPhone 12, Apple Watch, iPad – all have no focus or DND mode on. How do I fix this? I do have a 8+ yr old MAC & old broken iPad that I’ve not signed into with my Apple ID. I don’t know if for some reason my old devices are causing this, but why with only ONE of my contacts- who is on my favorite/close contact list
Found the fix for my phone on the Apple forum.
Ensure all Focus features are turned off on your iPhone then go Settings > Focus and turn on “Share Across Devices” on your iPhone.
Then from the same tab Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb tap “Focus Status”
On that screen, toggle “Share Focus Status” to On
After that, go back to Settings > Privacy > Focus and make sure “Shared With” Messages is toggled On. Now toggling on and off the Do Not Disturb setting will work as intended and people should not see either the “notifications silenced” message nor “Notify Anyway” warning when the Focus is off.
If the previous setting is already toggled On, toggle it off and then back on.
Then restart, using this method, noting that there are no pauses or delays and all buttons should be pressed as quickly as possible:
Press and quickly release Volume Up button
Press and quickly release Volume Down button
Then press and hold the Side button for 30 seconds until you see the Apple logo
This resolved it for me. It is very specific, but I hope it can help someone else.
Now when DND is on and the sender begins typing a message to me, they get the message that notifications silenced before they send the message. When DND is off they don’t get the message. Finally got this issue resolved.
Same here and Apple can’t figure it out. Anyone get the answer yet?
Does one have to be a contact in the recipients phone for the “has silenced notifications” to appear? Or, will this notifications show for anyone?
Excellent article. Helped sort out the frustration with iOS 15 & Focus. Spent a couple of hours with Apple, in total.
Hmm, my phone is giving the “notifications silenced“ alert to my friends when I’m not in focus or do not disturb mode. I do have my ringer off, but no special mode…
Same! We’re you able to figure this out?