Android Magazine UK - Issue No. 49

Tu t o r i a l s

Apps used»Native Android featureWorks with»Varies with device

Don’t get notifications

at night

T

here’s nothing more annoying than

being woken up in the middle of the

night by an unwanted alert saying

someone’s favourited one of your tweets.

Fortunately, Android Lollipop has the

solution in the form of Priority Mode.

Similar to the Do Not Disturb setting found

on other platforms, it allows you to mute

notifi cations temporarily. However, unlike

A irplane Mode that blanket blocks all

communication, Priorit y Mode allows you

to set which notifi cations are allowed to get

through, for instance, an emergency

contact or your morning alarm. To start, all

you’ll need is a dev ice running the latest

version of Android. Some manufacturers

might not include the functionalit y in their

tweaked versions of Lollipop though, so

double check before we begin. This is an

easy to use system, so shouldn’t take more

than a few minutes to complete.

Use Android Lollipop’s Priority Mode to

make sure that you’re not disturbed

with alerts while you’re sleeping

Turn Priority on manually

Fol low t h i s e a s y g u ide a nd you’ l l be able to s w itc h

Priorit y on and off with the tap of a button and the

push of a screen

Use the volume

buttons

To quickly turn on Priority,

push up or down on the

volume buttons on the

side of your device. You

should now see three

options underneath the

volume bar that pops up

on the screen – All,

Priority and None.

Tap to turn on

You can just tap on any of

the three options to turn

them on. You can even

tweak the length you will

have Priority Mode on for

and head into the

Settings by tapping the

cog icon to quickly and

easily change all of the

Priority mode settings.

Go all out

If you want to mute all of

your notifi cations,

including alarms, then

tap the option marked

All. You can set how long

you want the block to

last, but bear in mind

that nothing at all will be

able to get through when

it is muted.

Time Priority Mode

The fi rst thing to do is set how long

you want Priority Mode to last for.

Tap the drop down menu at the top

of the screen and tap Allow only

Priority interruptions. If it’s for

when you’re asleep, 8 hours is a

pretty good length

Alter Interruptions

To get things set up head into

your Settings menu and go to the

‘Sound & notifi cation’ menu.

When you’re in there, tap on

Interruptions. Here, you will be

able to set which notifi cations

will get through when you’re

running Priority Mode and which

will remain silent

Select days

Now you can select which days you

want Priority mode to run on. Tap on

the Days button to pick them. You

might want to set it to turn on during

the working week and not at

weekends. Just tap on your chosen

days to select them

Set a time

Once you have selected your days,

you can then select the times that

you want Priority to turn itself on

automatically. Don’t worry, there’s

an easy way to turn the settings on

manually as well. Just select the

start and end times and you are

good to go

Choose contacts

Next, head down to the Notifi cations

settings and pick what you would

like to be allowed through. You can

select to receive notifi cations from

anyone, from only your contacts

or from specifi c contacts that you

have put a star next to in your

device’s phone book