Focus assist, formerly known as Quiet Hours, helps users to focus on their work by disabling notifications from all or specific apps. If you often receive emails or messages on Teams or something else, you can disable that app’s notifications with the help of Focus assist. In simple terms, Focus assist helps you stay focused on your work when you use Windows 11 PC. Recently, Microsoft rolled out a Windows 11 security update, KB5016629, which comes with a feature that lets you receive only important notifications even when Focus assist is turned on. How does Windows 11 decide whether a notification is important or not? It shows an option to allow or block specific kinds of notifications from being displayed on the user’s choice. As a user, you can find an option in the Action Center that lets you allow the app to display important notifications when Focus assist is turned on. Alternatively, you can choose the same from the Windows Settings panel as well. This guide will help you go through the exact process.
How to receive important notifications when Focus assist is on
To receive important notifications when Focus assist is on in Windows 11, follow these steps: First, you need to open the Windows Settings and ensure that you are in the System tab. Needless to mention that you must turn on Focus assist before following these steps. Once the Windows Settings panel is opened on your screen, click on the Notifications menu and head to the Notifications from apps and other senders section. Here you can find all the apps that are capable of sending notifications. From here, you need to choose an app that you want to allow to send notifications when Focus assist is on. After that, toggle the Allow app to send important notifications when focus assist is on button to turn it on. Once done, you are all set. The feature is currently available in Insider Builds only and will be rolled out to the stable versions shortly. Read: How to enable and use Focus Sessions in Windows 11
What are settings for notifications available with focus assist?
There are a few options and settings available for Focus assist notifications. In order to find them all, you need to set Focus assist Automatic rules. Apart from that, you can allow or block specific apps from sending only important notifications when it is turned on as well. On the other hand, it allows users to put an app on the blacklist, which prevents the app from sending all notifications at once.
Does Focus assist stop Teams notifications?
Yes, Focus assist can stop Teams notifications on Windows 11. For that, you need to ensure that you haven’t included Microsoft Teams in the Priority list. If it is already added, click on the Customize priority list option, and remove the app from there.
What is priority in Focus assist?
The priority list in Focus assist helps you receive notifications from certain apps even when it is enabled. Although Focus assist is intended to block notifications, you can receive important notifications from specific apps. You can do that by putting it on the priority list. Hope this guide helped you. Read: How to customize Notifications and Action Center on Windows 11/10,
