How to Enable Emergency Bypass Setting on a iPhone

Don’t Miss That Call - Set Up Emergency Bypass

If you have people in your life - kids, parents, close friends, that you’d want to reach you no matter what, there’s a great feature on your iPhone called Emergency Bypass. It lets you choose certain contacts who can get through even when your phone is on Do Not Disturb or a Focus Mode. You can allow calls, texts, or both.

Why does this matter? 

A few weeks ago, I went camping and put everything on Do Not Disturb from my Apple Watch. Because all my Apple devices are linked with the same Apple ID, that Focus mode synced across everything. Unfortunately, that meant I missed some really important calls—including one from my mother-in-law (not one you want to miss!).

Here is what you need to do.

Step 1: Add Key Contacts to Your Address Book

Before anything else, make sure the people you’d want to hear from in an emergency are saved in your Contacts. If they’re not saved, you won’t be able to enable Emergency Bypass for them.

Step 2: Turn On Emergency Bypass

Here’s how to do it on iOS:

1. Open the contact you want to allow through (let’s say, your mother-in-law).
2. Tap Edit.
3. Scroll down and tap Ringtone (yes, really).
4. At the top of the next screen, toggle Emergency Bypass to ON.
5. Tap Done.

You can do the same for text tones too, if you want to allow messages through.

Once it’s on, you’ll see a little note under Ringtone that says “Emergency Bypass On.” That means this contact will break through Focus or Do Not Disturb anytime they call.

Summary

Setting up Emergency Bypass ensures that you never miss important calls or messages while Do Not Disturb or Silent mode is enabled. It’s especially helpful if you frequently forget to turn off DND. (Like I do)

Heads-Up About Macs

While your Mac can receive FaceTime, Audio or video calls, it doesn’t support setting up Emergency Bypass and it won’t even show you which contacts have it enabled. In fact, if you check a contact that has Emergency Bypass turned on, it might just say “unknown tone” unless you’ve picked a custom ringtone. Classic Apple move.