Introduced in iOS 16, Focus Filters are excellent in premise. If you’re in say, a Work focus, you can block out distracting apps, websites, and notifications. It even works in Messages, where you’ll only see texts from people in your Work focus.
There’s one caveat with its implementation in Messages though, and it makes it much less useful for me than it could be.
Personally, I often find myself getting sidetracked in great conversations while working on my Mac. Initially, I tried just closing the Messages app and removing it from my dock – but then I just found myself pickup up my phone constantly to check texts. So then, I tried focus filters.
Focus filters in Messages
For the most part, it’s an effective solution. I can select a couple people I’d like to be able to quickly chat with, but cut out everything else that might not necessarily be important. It’s not just a matter of notifications. In the Messages app, it removes all of the excluded people from the conversation list.
