Hands-On Apple 227 transcript

Please be advised that this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word-for-word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-free version of the show.

Mikah Sargent [00:00:00]:
So you've got a focus setup and it's doing its job, silencing the stuff that doesn't matter while you're trying to concentrate. Hey, that's great. But you unlock your phone and you're still staring at the same home screen full of distracting apps. Your mail app is still showing your personal inbox alongside your work inbox. And safari still has 47 tabs open from last night's rabbit hole. The notifications are quiet, but the environment hasn't changed at all. That is what this episode fixes. Stay tuned for this episode of Hands on Apple podcasts you love from people you trust.

Mikah Sargent [00:00:38]:
This is Twit. Hello and welcome to Hands on Apple. I am Micah Sargent, and today we are continuing on with our work covering focus filters. Of course, we have talked now about focus and the ability to set up your focus modes. We've talked about what you need to do to switch between them, and a little bit about how you choose what apps and what people can get through to bother you. Now it's time to look at focus filters. Because focus filters are the piece most people don't really know exists, or if they do, have a little bit of confusion about what the whole point of them is. But they're what take this whole system from arguably what is otherwise kind of just good to genuinely powerful.

Mikah Sargent [00:01:38]:
So let's kind of break down the concept. A focus filter will tell a specific app to show you only the content that's relevant to your current focus. Instead of just silencing notifications from an app completely, you're actually changing what the app displays when you open it. And this happens automatically when the focus activates and then reverts when it turns off. You don't have to remember to switch anything manually. So what's super cool about focus modes is developers are able to make these changes and make it so that parts of the app can adjust based on the focus that you have set up. So where do we find them? Well, let's head over to ipados to take a look. All right, here we are on IPADOs and we're going to launch the settings app and we are going to go scroll down on the side to focus.

Mikah Sargent [00:02:27]:
From here we can choose a focus. So actually, let's create a new one and we're going to call this hoa for the show and we're going to give it the fire icon and we'll make it very red. And then now we'll customize this focus. So, of course, as before, we can choose the people and choose the apps that do or do not get to come through. We can also customize the screens which we'll talk about soon. We can set the schedule which we talked about before. But the most important part is this part down here. Focus filters.

Mikah Sargent [00:03:06]:
They're at the bottom of that focus configuration screen. And so honestly wouldn't be surprised if you've missed them because again, they're at the bottom here. Now there are different types of focus filters. I want to talk about the ones that are built in before we go into some of the other options that are available to add a we tap on, as you can believe it, the add filter option. And let's take a look at what Apple itself offers with its first party apps. So perhaps mail is one of the choices. We can tap on mail. And if you have more than one account logged in on mail, then this gives you the ability to say during a specific focus, I only want you to show these email accounts.

Mikah Sargent [00:03:51]:
So during a work focus, maybe you only want to show your work email a personal focus. You hide that work focus, that work inbox entirely. So it's a great way to make sure that you're not sort of doom scrolling through your work messages at 8pm when otherwise you should be kind of resting right? So you choose which mail accounts to show by tapping on them and then of course by choosing to toggle one off you are saying I don't want that one to show. So now the only inboxes that are showing are the inboxes from icloud. That's the account that's logged in. Next calendars. If we head to calendar we can choose which calendars to show. So I may have my for this hands on Apple 1.

Mikah Sargent [00:04:39]:
I think what I would want to show here would be my podcasts calendar and I want to make sure that I'm staying up to date on any, any of the trips that I'm taking so that I don't accidentally schedule an episode of the show when I am going to be away. I've selected those calendars I choose Add tapping on it gives you the ability to go in and make adjustments as needed. And so then we can hit the checkbox. Your personal focus can hide like meetings that you have from work. Your work focus could only show your work calendar. Personal appointments wouldn't get shown. And it's important to understand that this is going to affect what shows up in the calendar app, but it also will affect, and this is kind of cool, what shows up in calendar widgets, what shows up on your lock screen and your home screen. It's not just the app app, it's also the extensions of the app that are affected as well.

Mikah Sargent [00:05:35]:
Messages will let you filter conversations based on the people that you have allowed in your focus. So for example, during your work focus, you could set it so that you could only see conversations from coworkers. Then during personal, if you have that turned on, it would show friends and family and they don't away, of course. They're just sort of hidden away until you're done with the focus. So if we tap on that, we would show filter by people list, which I won't do because it shows people's last names. But the point is then you can say I only want to see these specific categories. I also love that with Safari you can set it so that only certain profiles show up. We've done an episode of Hands on Apple in the past about profiles for Safari.

Mikah Sargent [00:06:14]:
But you could also set it up so that it's tab groups. You choose the tab group and then you have the ability to to allow opening of external links in that tab group or not. So we would choose this and then we could pick one from one of these options here. And so it could be, oh, let's go with, well, this says twit, so let's go with that. That is the tab group that is allowed to be displayed. And then I can make sure that no other tab group displays during that. Now I think that it's better instead of using a tab group that you do it as, as a profile. But those options are both available.

Mikah Sargent [00:06:56]:
So we're going to remove that filter and then we can also create a filter that is for the system. So whether silent mode turns on, whether dark mode turns on and whether low power mode turns on. So we can say that when this focus is enabled, turn on low power mode. You could imagine that, you know, if you are doing a sleep focus mode and you want to conserve battery overnight, so you're maybe it's like sleep while travel or something camping, a camping focus. That could be a great way to have that. And then dark mode and light mode where making sure that if you do have focus modes that are set to your evening, that those are the options. Now that's just one of the things from one of the options whenever it comes to focus filters. As I said, developers can build focus filter support into their apps.

Mikah Sargent [00:07:50]:
And so some apps, we've seen it mostly with productivity apps, communication apps will give you again that ability to sort based on that. Now it is true that focus filters are One of those categories where a lot of developers haven't made use of the feature. But you can see here 1Password card hop drafts. I should mention 1Password has long been a sponsor of the network. 1Password cardhop drafts, fantastical, which is the calendar app that I use, Noir, which is a Safari extension and as well as Push Cut and Spark are all part of the options. And these make sense obviously. Fantastic. I'm making sure that only the calendars that I want to display display Drafts.

Mikah Sargent [00:08:39]:
There are lots of options with Drafts. Drafts is a very powerful tool. So you can make it so that it only opens certain workspaces, that it only opens a certain draft, that it will set actions based on whether it's a work focus or a different focus. It's very powerful. So you can see how third party developers making use of Focus filters can be very exciting. I think that app filters and system filters are one of the coolest part of Focus modes. And being able to essentially turn your phone into your work phone when you need it to be, or your home phone when you don't need it to be, is really cool. And so that is why I think focus filters are one of the neatest features of filters, excuse me, of Focuses, and one that sadly, sorely could use some more attention from third party developers.

Mikah Sargent [00:09:38]:
So that's Focus filters. But it's not just filters that we're going to talk about this episode. We're also going to talk about lock screen pairing. And so we've talked about the sort of environmental changes. Let's talk about how we can make it so that we sort of paint the walls the right color right when we are switching contexts. So tying a specific lock screen to a Focus makes it so that you can tell that you're in a Focus mode. And this is how it works. Every lock screen that you create on your phone, your iPad, can be linked to a Focus.

Mikah Sargent [00:10:17]:
And when that Focus activates, your device is going to automatically switch to the paired lock screen. This is its wall. It includes the widgets, the fonts that you've chosen, the widget layout, and you can also set it up so that it changes your home screen. Each lock screen and home screen can be customized together. And that does mean that you can control which apps and widgets are front and center using each Focus. What we can do in order to set up these lock screens is we can, from this page of the Focus page, we're in the customize screens section, choose a lock screen. Now, there are some options that you already have from the Lock screens that you've created. We've talked before about how you can create custom lock screens.

Mikah Sargent [00:11:01]:
And you know what, in this case I want to create a new lock screen. So I'm going to tap on the gallery that will bring up some different options. And for the Hands on Apple version, I think I want to pull from the Mac collections here. So we've got this purple lock screen set up and we can change all sorts of things. Whether there's a depth effect, what it looks like when it's light versus what it looks like when it's dark. And we'll change that to automatic. We can change the font that's being used here and whether it is glass, meaning that it takes on sort of the surrounding effects. And let's do something that feels more work like okay.

Mikah Sargent [00:11:45]:
And we will actually we'll make that adjustment yet. You can also change the size of the time again. You know what, we won't spend a lot of time doing this. We know how lock screen changes work and if you don't, well, now's the time to figure it out. Now I've got an episode of Hands on Apple covering this. So we've popped in a couple of things that we like. I like to have my weather in there. Always helps to have battery.

Mikah Sargent [00:12:15]:
What else might be related to work? Maybe we would have, oh, I don't know, the Hands on Apple one would also have, oh, look at that scroll. The Hands on Apple one would also have a shortcuts option and so we can drag in two of these and then you would just change what shortcut runs from this. So now we've got this lock screen ready to go. We'll tap add and it's going to ask if you want to customize the home screen. In this case, I don't want to. I'm just going to choose set as wallpaper pair. Now it knows that when I turn on the Hands on Apple focus, it will pair the lock screen and the home screen and use that widget outlay. Now you can go through and make those changes as you need to.

Mikah Sargent [00:13:14]:
You can choose. Okay, we definitely want to do this main page. We'll choose select. You can tap on it and make sure that it is selected there and then whoops. You are able to then lock in, if you can forgive the pun, your home screen and your lock screen. And then if we switch to this focus, we'll swipe down from the right hand corner there. We'll tap and hold on, do not disturb and we'll change it to hoa. Now, in theory, when I go to my home screen, as you can see, it did in fact change the background.

Mikah Sargent [00:13:45]:
Now if we take this and we switch it from HOA to Do not disturb now, you'll see that it has changed the background. So that specific focus has set that up. You can also do this from creating a lock screen from the lock screen itself. So this is a way to make sure that the focuses that you set up are tied to those specific screens. And you know, we've got one for work. Right? Let's set one up for. We talked about the camping one. Right, let's.

Mikah Sargent [00:14:21]:
Do you know what we'll do? Mindfulness. And this is going to activate when we start a mindfulness session. But I also want it to start every. This is. This is obviously not how I would do it, but we'll say every day from 4pm to 5pm and then also when I start a mindfulness session. And you'd set it up with the people who can act, who can talk to you, the apps, we're going to say none. But then let's go for a very, ooh, serene lock screen. And so we've selected that for the lock screen, we will choose a new page and you can see these actually have suggestions on them, which is really nice as well.

Mikah Sargent [00:15:07]:
For podcasts, notes and weather, you can change which apps are displayed from the app library. So maybe if you have. I would. For example, if I've got Endel on here, I would put Endel. So it's not available on this device, but that's one that I would choose. And it'll go ahead and organize and arrange those for you so that it is automatically set. You can see is that we've switched between something that's a little bit more active, has a lot more data in the hoa, focus to something. And look how busy that is.

Mikah Sargent [00:15:44]:
The home screen there to something that with mindfulness is a little bit more serene. Now, it does seem to be having trouble loading that lock screen there. But the point is those both get set then with this more serene look. So it's not just a difference of notifications. Again, the device kind of entirely feels different based on what you're doing. And what's great about that is it gives you the ability to not only feel like the, you know, the wallpaper, the paint has changed in the room. So then you're kind of changing your context, your thoughts, but it's also making it so that you can confirm for sure that that focus mode has activated. I've Had a problem in the past where I thought I'd activated a focus mode and then notifications were pouring through.

Mikah Sargent [00:16:32]:
It's very distracting. So it's very handy to know. Okay, no, I know that the focus mode has changed. Now. While you can do the screen pairing, let's switch back here. While you can do that screen pairing with your iPad and your iPhone, the Mac does not have lock screen pairing in the same way. It will of course still control notification behavior. It will still have those focus filters.

Mikah Sargent [00:16:56]:
It's just a little bit different. And then again, when it comes to iPad and iPhone, those are very, very similar. Let's talk about then how these kind of pieces work together when it comes to creating a focus mode. Right? We've looked before at creating a simple focus mode that will make it so we are not interrupted during work. Rosemary's the only one who can talk to me. And there are certain apps including 1Password and Slack, plus time sensitive notifications that are allowed to pour through. I have it set so that when I'm at work, then this focus mode turns on. But we can also go through and of course create that special customized screen.

Mikah Sargent [00:17:49]:
We can add focus filters and so those will all come together to make it so that not only does my iPad look different and feel different, but only the things I want getting through are getting through. When all three of these layers are configured right of notification rules, focus filters, and then lock screen and home screen pairing, you get this sort of single focus experience that transforms your device. One tap and control center. Or if you've got like that automated trigger setup, then your notifications, your app content, your device's appearance, it all shifts all at once. It becomes an incredibly powerful thing. It's like again, a new phone. You've got your day phone and your iPhone. Right? Very, very cool.

Mikah Sargent [00:18:32]:
So what would this kind of look like? Right, let's sort of picture this so that you can picture this for yourself. Let's say you arrive at the office, you don't work from home. In this case, you arrive at the office, your work focus activates based on your location. Immediately your lock screen switches from something more personal to something clean. It's a work focused layout. Your widget changes so that it's the next meeting that you have. Your calendar, basically, your home screen also shows your work apps front and center. Maybe you have the other apps later on in the list, but the important thing is right there in the front are the sets of apps that you need for work.

Mikah Sargent [00:19:09]:
Mail is only going to show you your work Inbox calendar only shows you your work calendar. Safari opens to your work tab, group or your work profile. Your co workers messages come through as needed. The group chat about weekend plans goes quiet until you leave. And then at the end of the day you get in your car, you drive away, that work focus turns off and everything goes back to the way that you had it before. That personal lock screen comes back, your personal inbox reappears. All those silence notifications roll in as a summary. That is what Fooocus can do.

Mikah Sargent [00:19:42]:
It doesn't require every single piece to be configured. You don't have to do all of it. I mean even just doing a lock screen pairing or setting up one or two focus filters is going to have a noticeable difference. So now it is time. Our next episode is going to be the final episode for talking about focus modes. So I want to set you up with some homework as I have been would like for you in this before the next episode set up at least one focus filter. It could be mail account filtering. It's the easiest win.

Mikah Sargent [00:20:17]:
It's the one that most people kind of go, oh, I get this. So if you're not sure about which one you want to do, try that. That's the one that kind of clicks for people. Create a dedicated lock screen for your focus and then pair them with the home screen and so then that'll activate and then play with the widgets. So you know, not just a different wallpaper but actual different information there at a glance. Give it a purpose, really try. Give it the full college try as they say. And then the last bit of homework I have for you.

Mikah Sargent [00:20:49]:
If you use Safari tab groups, tie one to your focus or again Safari profiles, tie one to your focus and see how it feels to have those tabs context switch automatically where you're suddenly not getting your work tabs mixed in with your personal tabs when you would rather just have tabs available. I'm really excited for you. I'm excited to hear how things go. Your focus mode, it's no longer just a notification silencer. It's actually now controlling what you see inside apps, how your device looks when you pick it up in the next episode. Very excited to say we're going to put it all into practice by building two or three kind of real world focus setups from scratch entirely. And then we'll close out with an honest look at where this system still falls short and a little bit about the quirks you should know. So stay tuned for our next and final episode of Hands on Apple's coverage of focus modes on iOS, iPadOS, macros, et cetera.

Mikah Sargent [00:21:52]:
Thank you so very much for being here with me today on this episode of Hands on Apple. I'll be back next week with another episode, but until then, goodbye, Sam.