Research from 2017 suggests that almost 60% of US companies allow their employees to use their personal mobile phones for work purposes, while the report The state of enterprise mobility of Samsung found that only 17% of companies provided their workforce with corporate mobile phones and 31% managed using their own device. The remaining 52% adopted a hybrid.
And of course, one of the disadvantages of using your own smartphone is the distractions. At Xataka we have talked extensively about it, about the use of personal WhatsApp in the corporate environment, etc. The solution of the technological companies to avoid the mountain of things that steal our attention during the day and come from the screen has been to create a tool called Focus.
In a nutshell, Focus mode allows users to choose the most distracting apps on their device and “pause” them all with the flick of a button. For anyone who has a hard time compartmentalizing their app usage and is easily distracted by constant alerts, it has the potential to be a powerful feature.
But the opposite can also happen. In fact, it turns out that Apple’s new tool may also turn out to be the headache you’ve been running away from. yes, tech companies they are doing a bad job by helping us use your devices less.
Let’s say you’re trying to focus at work, so you need to see notifications from Slack and Gmail, but not from your mom on WhatsApp passing you pictures of your niece, or your friends on Instagram asking when the next karaoke is. But what if the plumber who’s supposed to come fix your sink tries to call, or if your mom really does have an emergency?
A few months ago, the technology expert and journalist lance ulanoff, published an article on Medium stating that Apple’s new Focus feature was too aggressive and recounted a real experience. “‘I called you,’ a friend told me. “When?” “10 minutes ago,” he said, sounding angry. I took the iPhone away from my ear and looked at it. “That’s not possible,” I argued, “My phone is right next to me because I was waiting for your call and I made sure the ring/silent switch was on ring. After the call, I checked my recent calls and sure enough, I had missed her call and I noticed that it had happened with a few more”.
What else was missing? He checked his text messages and noticed that he had also missed some messages from people outside of his close circle of family and friends. Everyone who called or texted received responses of “Not available” or they were sent directly to voicemail. What happened to your iPhone 13 Pro? Nothing, really, it was just Apple’s Focus, trying to “help” you focus on things other than calls, texts, and notifications on your phone.
Here’s how Apple describes Focus: “It allows you to stay in the moment when you need to focus or walk away from your device. You can customize Focus settings and choose when you want to receive alerts and notifications, while letting other people and apps know when you’re busy.” “.
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? And it’s true, nobody interrupts you with calls, texts and notifications. But it is also true that people don’t contact you even when you want them to.
As a result, since Apple began rolling out the feature to iPhone users in September, many people have missed work calls, home repair visits, and doctor appointments. Social media is full of confused people wondering why they weren’t notified of the calls and why it seems like everyone’s messages are muted. People wonder if their daughters are mad at them or if the Amazon delivery guy decided not to go that day.
Even people who work at this kind of thing for a living had problems with Focus. Vanessa Bowen, a user experience designer, says she appreciates Apple’s minimalist design, but she missed an appointment with the shrink when she turned on the personal version of Focus, which lets her customize which contacts and apps she wants to listen to. She didn’t realize that in order to receive those appointment notifications, she would have to add her calendar to a list of accepted apps or choose to allow notifications to penetrate Focus mode.
that kind of mishap can have real repercussions. “In these cases, when it’s a really important feature and it’s going to interfere with your life in terms of missed calls or important reminders on your calendar, I don’t think they really thought about that,” Bowen said. my life to allow me to set it up properly, nor did he inform me what he would do.
Over time, they have realized that there was unintentional automation when they were working. Focus was choosing when to enable via a slightly hidden feature called “Smart Wake,” which wakes you up at “relevant moments,” by observing your daily activities and sensing your focus needs. So if you’re missing calls and texts on your iPhone, this might be why. The idea was concentrate, don’t be late everywhere.