On holidays I don’t want incoming calls on my iPhone but I still want my family to be able to call me. The iPhone has a ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode that allows you to filter incoming calls and disable incoming texts. Here’s how it works.

Go to settings and turn on ‘Do Not Disturb’. This will by default switch off all incoming phone calls.

To customise ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode and allow some numbers through click on ‘Notifications’. Here you can allow a group of contacts through (eg your ‘family’ address book list) or as I have done here let through ‘favourites’ then you can go to the phone app and edit the favourites list and only those in the favourites list will be allowed through.

You can also get rid of the alerts that appear on the front home screen when phone calls or text messages arrive, and the red icon that shows your missed calls. To edit these settings go to ‘Notifications’ then ‘Phone’ or ‘Messages’. From here you can adjust the style of alert and disable the red badge etc. Have a play it’s very customisable.