You can set up an auto-reply on your iPhone if you are busy with something important and can’t be distracted by calls or messages. This feature has been available since iOS 15. To be more specific, it is related to the Driving Focus mode.
Unfortunately, you won’t find an auto-reply in other Focus modes. And frankly, I think it’s weird. Indeed, it would also be handy to have such a feature in the regular DND. We can only hope that it will be added there in future updates.
However, there’s nothing complicated about setting up an auto-reply in Driving Focus mode. So let’s take a closer look at how it works.
How to set up Driving Focus on iPhone
So to enable auto-reply, you need to set up the Driving Focus mode on your iPhone. Follow these steps:
- Open Settings on your iPhone and go to Focus.
- After that, tap on the + icon and select Driving.
- Then tap Customise Focus.
- Tap Auto-Reply.
- Finally, select Recents, Favorites, or All Contacts.
Once you have completed these steps, you can edit an auto-reply message or leave it by default. Now, when your iPhone is in Driving mode, it will auto-reply to everyone (or the group of people you selected) trying to contact you.
To turn on the Driving Focus, you need to swipe from the right corner of the screen to open Control Center. Here, tap Focus and select Driving.
But there’s also another thing you should know. So read on.
How to enable Driving Focus automatically on iPhone
You can set the Driving Focus mode to turn on automatically. To do so, follow these instructions:
- Open Settings on your iPhone and go to Focus.
- Select Driving.
- Then scroll down and tap While Driving.
- Finally, enable Activate With CarPlay and select Automatically.
Now your iPhone will automatically turn on Driving mode when you get in the car and connect via Bluetooth or based on detected motion.
How to auto-reply to calls on iPhone
Setting up the auto-reply feature for calls is a little easier. However, it’s not fully automatic because you should tap on the message during the incoming call. Anyway, this is better than nothing, so do the following:
- Open Settings on your iPhone and go to Phone.
- Then tap Respond with Text.
- Now, you need to type from one to three messages you will respond with.
That’s it. Now you know how to set up the auto-reply feature on your iPhone in a few easy steps.
