How to Enable ‘Do Not Disturb While Driving’ in iOS 11 on iPhone [PICS]

In yesterday’s release of iOS 11 beta 2, Apple activated the highly anticipated ‘Do Not Disturb While Driving’ feature, which is aimed at curbing and reducing distracted driving.

We went hands-on with this new feature, so here’s a quick look at how to enable Do Not Disturb While Driving and what it can do for you and your family when they’re in the car.

To turn on Do Not Disturb While Driving in iOS 11 on your iPhone, go to:

Settings > Do Not Disturb (scroll down) > Do Not Disturb While Driving

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From here, you’ll have three options under Activate:

  • Automatically (your iPhone will sense when you’re moving and the feature will enable itself)
  • When Connected to Car Bluetooth
  • Manually (you can add DNDWD to Control Center)

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The feature also Auto-Reply To options as well to: No One, Recents, Favorites, All Contacts:

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Users will also be able to customize their Auto-Reply. Here is the default message below, which reads “I’m driving with Do Not Disturb While Driving turned on. I’ll see your message when I get where I’m going.”

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The easiest way to enable Do Not Disturb While Driving manually is to add the toggle to Control Center. To do this, go to: Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls.

Under ‘More Controls’, just tap the green “+’” icon next to ‘Do Not Disturb While Driving’:

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Once you’ve done this, the icon will now be visible in Control Center:

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We tested Do Not Disturb While Driving (in the passenger seat obviously) by manually enabling it. The feature will notify you “You will not receive Notifications while you are driving.” to remind you one last time.

Text messages sent our way received the following Auto-Reply:

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As you can see, to bypass DNDWD, the feature informs your contacts “(I’m not receiving notifications. If this is urgent, reply “urgent” to send a notification through with your original message.)”

When your iPhone has Do Not Disturb While Driving enabled, you won’t receive notifications to the lock screen. If you press the Home button, the normal prompt to enter your passcode or Touch ID is disabled. You need to tap “I’m Not Driving” in order to unlock your phone, as one last resort to remind you not to check those Facebook notifications.

Also, it is possible to enable Restrictions for Do Not Disturb While Driving, so your family members cannot disable the feature from enabling automatically.

Just go to Settings > General > Restrictions (enter your passcode) > Enable Restrictions > scroll down to Allow Changes > Do Not Disturb While Driving > Don’t Allow Changes.

Once this is restricted, users cannot make changes to Do Not Disturb While Driving settings. But of course, users are still able to exit DNDWD when it is turned on. But if you have the setting on automatic, no matter what users will see the feature enable, reminding them to keep their hands on the wheel (if they’re driving).

The first beta implementation of Do Not Disturb While Driving so far works fairly well. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada last month, distracted driving is now the leading cause of deaths in Canada. It remains to be seen whether DNDWD in iOS 11 will curb distracted driving, but being a default feature of iOS means we can at least enable it easily for friends and family.

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