Regardless of whether you have an iOS or an Android device, your smartphone is bound to have a “Do Not Disturb” feature baked in. While iOS may technically have been the first to introduce the a “Do Not Disturb” feature, but that’s all ancient history now that Android has introduced their own take on the feature. When it first debuted, there were some issues — as you’d expect — with the software. These days, however, Google has streamlined the process, cleaned up the bugs, and has even incorporated new ‘rules’ that’ll make your iOS-packing buddy burn with envy.

What do ‘rules’ mean, exactly? Glad you asked! Basically what Android allows you to do is to schedule when you’ll receive notifications. For example, if you don’t want your device to be active your meetings or when you sleep, you can program ‘Do Not Disturb’ to turn on during that time. Not a bad idea, right?

Let’s face it, we all have times when we don’t want to be bothered. So why keep being annoyed with bleeps and bloops as you go throughout your day? Let’s show you how to activate this feature on your phone.

Before setting up the Do Not Disturb feature on your phone, here are the three settings that you'll have to choose from: total silence, alarms only and priority. ‘Total Silence’ does not allow any notifications to come in, as it completely mutes your phone. ‘Alarms Only’ also mutes your phone, however, anything you have set as an alarm will be heard. It also won’t mute sounds from games, media or videos. Finally, ’Priority’ will only interrupt you with a notifications if you’ve pre-selected those notifications as a high-priority. So, if you would like to receive notifications for text messages but not phone calls, you can set text messages as priority.

Firstly, you need to find out where you can access this feature on your Android. What you’re going to do is pull down the notification bar, you’re going to see your wifi connection, your auto-rotate feature, etc. But what you want to do is pull down that notification bar twice and this is where you’ll be able to access the Do Not Disturb icon. When you see the Do Not Disturb icon, you’ll want to tap on it twice. This will take you to the basic settings window.

Once you’re in the basic settings window, you’ll be able to customize your Do Not Disturb settings. You’ll want to tap on ‘more settings’. When you tap on more settings, the window will expand and you’ll want to click on ‘Automatic Rules’.

Now you’re able to create rules for your Do Not Disturb feature. These rules can be time or event based, depending on what you prefer. Time-based is based on the time of day whereas event-based is established through your Google Calendar.

To add an event-based rule, you’ll want to tap on ‘Add Rule’. Then you’ll have to name the rule and tap ‘Event Rule’. Then tap ‘ok’. Once this is done, in the next window, you’ll want to tap on ‘During Events’. Now, you’ll be given a drop-down menus where you’ll select your Google account that you want to have linked. Once you select the account you’d like, tap ‘Where Reply is’ and then tap ‘Yes’ in the drop-down menu. Then, tap on ‘Do Not Disturb’ and then tap ‘Total Silence’. Or, you can put the device also on “Priority Only” which will allow you to receive notifications if you’ve set them as a priority. Once this is completed, you’ve set your rule. This means, any event that you have on Google calendar where you’ve replied yes to attend, your device will automatically go on Do Not Disturb mode.

Now, you can do the same thing for other events and you have a limitless amount of rules you can create. If you choose to create an event-based rule, you need to make sure your Google calendar is functioning and updated on your events. If you’re not using your Google Calendar on a regular basis, then we recommend you try a time-based event instead. This will allow you to set the time on the Do Not Disturb feature and it will automatically place your device on Do Not Disturb. Please remember, when you’re setting the rules, make sure you choose how you’d like to mute your phone, whether that be through total silence, alarms only or priority.