What does "notifications silenced" mean in Messages?

I think I figured out why my do not disturb always comes on, but doesn't look like it's on in focus. On my iPhone I went to Settings, Focus, Do Not Disturb.....and at the bottom it said, "TURN ON AUTOMATICALLY 8-12AM Every Day. I clicked on that, and the next page had a schedule you can set for every day of the week, with a schedule on/off switch, and at the bottom was, "Delete Automation."

Same issue here. Wife's contact in messages shows with the "silenced" message but its off on all of her devices. She doesn't appear that way to anyone else. I turned off the "Share focus" with myself and everyone as a whole and it still shows.

This has to be a bug because note in the original post that the messages are not through iMessage but rather SMS which should not share information like that.

I had the same problem and the solution is just to ensure that

1. Setting -> Share Across Devices -> ON

2. Setting -> Do Not Disturb -> Focus Status -> On

Then you toggle On and Off Do Not Disturb, the "notifications silenced" message on your friend's phone should be off.

There is no need to go to every devices to check this as long as "Share Across Devices" on your phone (or mac) is ON, the status would be applied to all your devices with this settings ON as you toggle DND

If you want just the mac to disable all alerts permanently, on Mac System Preferences, turn OFF "Share Across Devices" and turn OFF "Share Focus Status" on Mac, then the settings on IOS would not affect the mac DND and the "notification silenced" message would not be shown.

Simply not true. I have all notifications on, I have deleted all my focus settings that I had set up and I am still being told by people that I have notifications turned off. I have rebooted multiple times, signed out of every device that I have and then back in and nothing has changed.

Hi @jason928 - I think many of us (i really can only speak for myself) have done this already.

My intention was to share my status with others when "at work" or "working out" "driving"... when I wasn't able to respond right away.

However, when I had zero Focus Status, was not in DND at all, people were getting the notification at the bottom of our text threads that I have notifications silenced. They would text me and I was getting the messages in a timely manner. But, it was just annoying that they saw this message thinking I was busy.

I have since just turned off the function all together as I believe it's too buggy for prime time as it stands.

Hi @gomichaelgo81,

I think the "notification silenced" message was there because one of your devices signed into the same iCloud account has the "Share Focus Status" turned ON for one of the focus mode. I can only tell you how I fixed it: By setting both "shared across device" (for all focus) and "Share Focus Status" on that particular focus. Now Turn that focus ON, wait a little bit and turn that OFF. It will send the message to all your friend that this particular focus is OFF, and cleared that message. Repeat for other focus if needed.

I've read someone says they have checked all devices, they have no focus ON and yet the message on their friends device is still ON. It was because one of the devices had "shared across device" OFF but "Share Focus Status" ON. So if you always keep both settings ON and once you turn off the focus on any device, the "notification silence" message will be gone too. And this is how I fixed it and once i understand how it works, it never happen again.

In my particular use case, I always want to keep my mac DND, and I don't want to keep turning ON every time I go to that mac. So "Share Across Device" on the mac is OFF but I have to remember that the "Share Focus Status" of that particular Focus mode is also off to prevent the annoying "notification silenced" from displaying on my friend's device. I think it is not very intuitive to have this very similar named settings but I think this is the use case for why they have 2 settings.

All possible items have been turned off, so has sharing and my friend is STILL seeing a notice that I have notifications silenced. I DO NOT HAVE THEM SILENCED!!! This can really cause major issues if not resolved. Think of people with child custody matters, or family emergencies....children that aren't with them and need to reach mom or dad. This needs fixed ASAP!!!

Thank you for the advice. I realized I had silence on my watch and iPads and it was causing this (I believe) on everything. Weird kinks w this one. Wish they’d drop it. Too confusing when people have multiple devices and don’t want all devices going off. Thank you!

Same issues. All started when I upgraded. I have spent 4 hours with Tech Support, not they want to replace my phone because even tech support cannot figure out how to stop these messages. I have every notification setting off, I have deleted every focus it allows you to delete and turned off every other.

I even have Amber Alert Notifications turned off. Everything is turned off on all of my devices. Now I have a fifth appointment at an apple store, two hours away, to start the process of getting a new phone.

I know others who got a new phone and have the same issues.

According to apple support, they do not have a solution, other than trying to reset you phone back to factory settings and replacing the phone with another brand new one.

Worst app ever

i have all of the Focus toggles to “off” and sharing off too. Try this…go to the message that someone has sent that receives the message that you are silenced. Press the arrow (>) next to their name. Scroll down and toggle off “Share Focus Status”. That should fix your problem.

I have all of the Focus toggles to “off” and sharing off too. Try this…go to the message that someone has sent that receives the message that you are silenced. Press the arrow (>) next to their name. Scroll down and toggle off “Share Focus Status”. That should fix your problem.

I have tried EVERY suggestion listed in this thread. NOTHING works! This is definitely a failing on the part of Apple and needs to be addressed ASAP! The whole “Focus” thing is very confusing and completely unnecessary. It’s a bug. Not a feature.

Omg! Sunskymo YES!!! Mine same **** thing! The only thing I did was playing around in my phone one nite and set up Bedtime Alarm? Not even sure what it’s called but it lets you dial how many hours you want to sleep and gives you a little cute alarm notice telling you it’s almost time for bed. It automatically turns your alarm on and keeps track of how many hours you sleep… which to me is useless because I do not sleep the whole nite through. The only device I have found that really lets you know that info is the Fitbit. Now I have to figure out or try to remember what part of the phone I was in when this happened 🙄😤 bunch of BS!

I agree, a very, very poor design. After literally hours trying to figure this out, what worked for me was going into focus, and with it off, tap on allowed notifications. Then select apps that you want notifications like - Messages....this worked for me and now my wife doesn't think I'm trying to ignore her :)

I have deleted all my focuses, disabled focus, turned off share focus across devices, and rebooted my phone several times and still have friends texting me saying I have notifications silenced. You can’t delete DND but I have that turned off and even added messages and phone to allowed apps.

I know you can turn off sharing focus with specific recipients but shouldn’t the Focus setting cover that across all contacts? I have a call scheduled with Apple tomorrow but if anyone has any any insight or next steps I can try please let me know. I hope Apple pushes an update to fix this issue as it seems pretty big.