Do Not Disturb mode is a popular feature and Google has made it easier to toggle it on and off directly from the Volume Controls on the Pixel and Pixel XL.
We know that Google has been tinkering with their Do Not Disturb mode feature over the last few years. This feature received a major change with Android 5.0 Lollipop, and this was greatly improved upon with the introduction of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Now with Android 7.0 Nougat, we’re getting more ways to interact with Do Not Disturb mode through the hidden System UI Tuner menu.
Just like with the tutorial I did yesterday on how to hide specific Status Bar icons, you’ll need to enable the hidden System UI Tuner menu in order to enable this new Do Not Disturb shortcut.
The process is very quick and easy to do, and it won’t damage your phone in any way. Google has just hidden this menu, and the features inside it, because they aren’t sure if they will be included into the core Android OS in the future.
So let me show you how to add a Do Not Disturb mode toggle directly into the Volume Controls panel on Android 7.0 Nougat with the Pixel and Pixel XL.
Pixel Do Not Disturb Shortcut
- Enable the System UI Tuner
- Launch the Settings application
- Scroll down and tap on the ‘System UI Tuner’ option
- Tap on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option toward the top
- Then toggle the ‘Show With Volume Controls’ option on
Explanation
If you’ve followed along in my previous tutorials, you’ll know how easy it is to enable the System UI Tuner application on Android. This hidden menu is similar to Developer Mode, and I’m honestly not sure why Google didn’t just put these features in the Developer Options hidden menu. Even if the features won’t be there from update to update, they generally seem like a great fit for Developer Mode in the first place.
Whatever the reason, you can find the steps to enable the System UI Tuner on the Pixel and Pixel XL by following the link in step 1 of the guide above. Once you have that enabled, go ahead and launch the Settings application (if you don’t have it open already), and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll see a new Settings menu option here labeled System UI Tuner, and tapping on it will bring you into the hidden menu.
From here, you’ll want to tap on the Do Not Disturb option and there should be two different options here. The second one is toggled on by default, and I’ll talk about that tomorrow. Today I want to focus on the top option that is labeled Show With Volume Controls. As you can see in the image above, you simply want to toggle this option on and you’re done. Go ahead and press the home button after it is toggled on, and you’ll be taken back to the Home Screen.
So normally, you would need to press the Volume Down button until you enabled the Silence mode on the Pixel phone. Tapping the Volume Down button one more time while you’re in Silence mode will enable Do Not Disturb mode for you. However, any time you press the Volume Up or Volume Down button with this option toggled on, will show you a new option within the Volume Control panel.
Just like you see in the very first image at the top of this tutorial, it’s just a simple toggle that you can toggle on when it is currently off. To toggle Do Not Disturb mode off, you just need to tap the End Now button at the bottom right of the Volume Controls panel.
