Have you ever been overwhelmed by too many notifications on your iPhone and wished for a solution or feature that delivers only the notification that YOU want? Sounds enticing? A useful but overlooked feature on iOS is Scheduled Summary. It was introduced in iOS 15 and since then has only gotten better. Let’s learn more about what Scheduled Summary is, how to set it up on iPhone, and how to use it.
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What Is Scheduled Summary
Scheduled Summary helps manage notifications on your iPhone. It allows you to bundle all the non-time-sensitive notifications in one place and deliver it to you at your preferred time. The Scheduled Summary can help you minimize distractions and focus more on the important stuff. Just like the focus status, you can also customize it according to your needs and get the important notifications right on time while leaving the rest to be delivered later at the time when you prefer.
Also Read: What Does Has Notifications Silenced Mean in iOS 15 and 16
Set Up Scheduled Summary
Since now we know how Scheduled Summary functions and why it is useful, let’s learn how to set it up on your iPhone. And here are the steps to set up Scheduled Summary on iOS.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on Notifications.
2. Tap on Scheduled Summary to begin.
3. Turn on the toggle named Scheduled Summary.
4. You will see a list of all the apps installed on your iPhone. Tap and turn on the toggles next to the apps that send unnecessary notifications and are distracting in nature.
Note: Next to each, you will see a number with a red dot. That’s the number of notifications that app sends every week. It is called Weekly Notification Avg.
5. Once done with the apps, tap on 1st Summary time.
6. The time selector will open. Scroll and choose a preferred time for the delivery of your Scheduled Summary. Once done with the time selection, tap on the summary time again to set it as the preferred time.
Tip: Now everything is set for Scheduled Summary. You will receive all the unnecessary notifications from selected apps at the chosen time once. But if you want to get Scheduled Summary twice or thrice a day, that’s possible too.
7. Tap on + Add Summary to create another Scheduled Summary delivery time.
8. Again tap on the Summary time to open the time selector.
9. Scroll and choose a time, once done tap again on the summary time to close the time selector.
10. Now Scheduled Summary has been set on your iPhone. You can tap on the “back” button and continue using your iPhone like earlier. If you want to add one more Summary Delivery time, repeat steps 7 to 9 above.
Using or Accessing Scheduled Summary
Once you’ve set up the Scheduled Summary on your iPhone, using it is effortless. Here are the steps to use the Scheduled Summary on your iPhone when it gets delivered to your iPhone at your chosen time.
1. Swipe down from the top to access the Notification Center.
2. Tap on Scheduled Summary to expand it and view all the clubbed notifications inside it. Depending on the time of the day, the heading may say Your Morning Summary or Your Evening Summary.
3. Tap on a notification to open it or you can also swipe left to dismiss that notification from the summary.
4. Once you are done with the Scheduled Summary, you can tap on the X to dismiss the whole Scheduled Summary. That will dismiss all the notifications that arrived with that schedule.
Make Exceptions for Time-Sensitive Notifications
Once you’ve set up Scheduled Summary on your iPhone, chances are you may be missing some important notifications like DMs from Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. In that case, iOS has an option for most apps to immediately deliver some notifications even in the Scheduled Summary. Let’s take a look at the steps to enable time-sensitive notifications even when Scheduled Summary is turned on.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on Notifications.
3. Tap on the app whose messages you want to receive immediately. For example, I’m tapping on LinkedIn.
Note: Not all apps allow immediate delivery of DMs or time-sensitive notifications.
4. Enable the toggles for Time-Sensitive Notifications and Direct Messages. And now all the notifications of that app will be delivered in Scheduled Summary except direct messages or any time-sensitive notifications.
Tip: 6 Ways to Silence Some Notifications on iPhone in iOS 16/15
Bonus Tip: Fine Tuning From Notification Center
Suppose you get an unwanted or distracting notification in the Notification Center and you want to change its delivery from normal to Scheduled delivery, iOS allows you to do so from the Notification Center itself. Let’s take a look at the steps to do so.
1. Swipe down from the top to access the Notification Center.
2. Swipe left on the notification that you want to be delivered in the Scheduled Summary.
Tip: Swipe left but halfway to reveal the options. Don’t completely swipe left or else you’ll dismiss the notification.
3. Tap on Options.
4. Tap on Add To Summary to add that particular app’s notification to the Scheduled Summary. Now that app won’t distract you anymore and will deliver the notifications in the Scheduled Summary only.
Distractions: But When You Want It
In short, Scheduled Summary is one of the better ways to minimize distractions on your iPhone. It doesn’t make you miss any notifications, plus offers the convenience of viewing them at your own preferred time. Once you start using Scheduled Summary, you wouldn’t like to switch back to the old way of getting notifications on your iPhone. Go ahead and Schedule Notifications and take control of your iPhone and life.
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