What does "notifications silenced" mean in Messages?

Hi vinnetta208, 

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities. 

We understand that you’re seeing a notifications silenced message when messaging a friend in Messages app and we’re happy to help. 

It looks like your friend uses Focus on their iPhone. When a person sets up Focus on their iPhone, then you might see a message displayed in the Messages app that says [contact name] has notifications silenced. This means that the person you’re messaging has their notifications silenced. Please note that you can still notify your friend if it’s urgent. Learn more about Focus here: Use Focus on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Best regards. 

It means they most likely have the DND settings set up on their phones and you are most likely not one of their favorites . So when the designated DND times are on, your messages will be silenced.

Hi vinnetta208,

We'd like to offer some additional clarification on this issue and offer some guidance if it is not working as expected.

The settings that cause this notification to appear are discussed in Use Focus on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

"When you set a Focus, the icon appears in the status bar and on your Lock Screen, and your status is automatically displayed in the Messages app. When people try to send you a message, they'll see that you’ve silenced notifications, but they can still notify you if it's urgent.

When you use Focus on one device, the setting is automatically applied across your Apple devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID."

However, if a user does not have a Focus enabled that should result in this notification being displayed, yet the notification still appears, we recommend that they update to iOS 15.2. Steps for updating can be found here: Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

We hope this helps.

This is not personal. it is a setting in the phone to give us breaks from all messages and electronics. Mine turns on and off at the same time every day. It is a form of self care and applied to all notifications.

The moon means all notifications are on silent. Your friend is practicing self care.

2 steps from this guide helped me: What does Notifications Silenced in Messages Mean and How to Disable it? My husband complained to me that I am ignoring his messages while I am in my office. The notification silenced message was appearing to him, first I was totally unaware about this feature. Later when I researched, I found out that a schedule Do not disturb mode was activating between 1pm to 4pm automatically so I disabled it which was by mistake activated and force restarted my phone( i don't know if this step is necessary but I did it ) and thats how I tackled this issue.

Have you upgraded to the iOS 15.1.1 recently? If you have you need to check all your devices that use your Apple ID and make sure the dumb "Focus" settings are disabled. More importantly check to make sure the "Share Across Device" is off. If any of your devices have the "Share Across Device" on, all devices with the same Apple ID will have the notifications silenced.

RamblerMan905 wrote:

HANNAH_TAPIA

User level:

Level 1

(12 points)

Dec 15, 2021 12:37 PM in response to vinnetta208

what that means is that on there phone they have it on silent mode , like when you go to sleep they have all the messages on there phone so they dont get distracted

You said it, which is why I said to you silent mode.

I'm not HANNAH_TAPIA so, no, I didn't say it.

Also in the OP it shows Vinneta208 in SMS mode so he would not likely see that message as it isn't in iMessage mode. But I do not know this for fact it doesn't show in SMS mode. (Need to get beside my buddy with his iPhone 13 and check it). It does show up in the screen grab up but Molly iMessaged him. He never commented again.

The OP reported they saw the message. It shows in their screenshot. They were upset about it. They probably never posted again because the first answer (their sender has Focus enabled) answered the question for them.

My point is, not everyone in this thread has exactly the same problem. And, some people have found solutions.

That just means she has upgraded her iOS and has used the Focus settings on her device. Most people don't even know why or how this setting is on. Apple made a complicated "Do Not Disturb" setting with "Focus" setting. Not even the apple support knows how to turn it off.

HANNAH_TAPIA

User level:

Level 1

(12 points)

Dec 15, 2021 12:37 PM in response to vinnetta208

what that means is that on there phone they have it on silent mode , like when you go to sleep they have all the messages on there phone so they dont get distracted

You said it, which is why I said to you silent mode.

FYI, all my focus settings are set to off, Do not disturb, personal, work, driving has been deleted along with sleep. Each individual contact is set to allow notifications. Messaging in settings is set to allow notifications.

Sorry if I exaggerated the number but this isn't the only thread or forum I have read trying to fix the issue. I have even had my phone side by side with another iPhone 13 running 15.2.

His phone shows my "set to silence notifications" message with all our settings 100% set the same. Toggling on/off. Signing in and out of iCloud and rebooting etc. changes nothing. Some said the issue was fixed in other threads only to to return and say it was back.

This is likely a bug with Focus, but not all are having it.

I hear every notification for messages that come in, including those who say they see the message I am set to silence notifications.

Also in the OP it shows Vinneta208 in SMS mode so he would not likely see that message as it isn't in iMessage mode. But I do not know this for fact it doesn't show in SMS mode. (Need to get beside my buddy with his iPhone 13 and check it). It does show up in the screen grab up but Molly iMessaged him. He never commented again.

It happened to me after updating to iOS 15.3. This is what I did:

1. Click on Settings
2. Go to Focus
3. Click on on "Do Not Disturb". By Default this will be turned off. It did show turned off me. I clicked on it to Turn it on and then turned it off. That was it! So it is a glitch, and this is the workaround that worked for me. Hope it helps other :-)

I literally just figured it out yesterday. In th focus setting I had to completely remove and bedtimes and click the DND off. And then restart your phone. I wasn’t getting any calls or texts from anyone INCLUDING MY FAVORITES!! Almost got me in BIG TIME RELATIONSHIP TROUBLE 😤

I’m having the same issue. I’ve made sure I have no focus mode on, no sleep mode, no dnd but people keep telling me it says I have “notifications silenced” in iMessage. Tried restarting but nothing seems to fix it.

Just figured my “Notifications have been silenced” issue. When I upgraded the iOS on any of my apple products it allowed sharing on all my devices. If just one of your devices has the focus sharing on then all your devices with the same Apple ID will be silenced with the same DND. You have to check every device that you have with your Apple ID on and make sure every focus is off. This includes your iPhone, iMac, iPad, MacBook, and watch. So stupid! Took me awhile to figure this out and kept finding one of my apple products with it on which blocked my notifications. Hope this helps.

I’ve turned all the focus stuff off and restarted my phone, iPads, my husbands phone, and it all still says that I’m silencing notifications. There has to be a bug somewhere. Somehow it got turned on and I didn’t do it. Now the message won’t stop telling people I’m silencing things.

Possible fix for those still having issues. I was having this issue with my spouse. I tried everything recommended in this thread and in others. I checked her status from my son's iPad and realized the "notifications silenced" message seemed to be specific to me. I did not see the same message when trying to message my spouse from my son's iPad.

Here's what I did:

1. Went to messages on my spouse's phone (the phone giving the "notifications silenced" message). I went to our message thread. She had me pinned at the top of her messages. I long pressed my picture and toggled "hide alerts" on and then off again. It was already in the off position, but I toggled it anyway.
2. I unpinned our message thread, I swiped our thread to the left while viewing all messages and toggled the alert icon (bell) on and off. Again, it was not on or silences but I toggled it on/off again anyway. This is probably the same as hiding alerts in step one above, but I was trying everything at this point.

After doing this, the "notifications silenced" on my wife's phone went away. I did not restart any devices. I'm not sure exactly how long it took as I stepped away for a few minutes but this did it for me.

Hope this helps.