You can now make an application override the standard Do Not Disturb mode with Android 7.0 Nougat by following these steps below.
Over the last few years, Google has been changing the way Android handles the basic priority notification levels. They started doing this as a way to give more choice to the person using the phone, but it didn’t really work out the way they had hoped. This first started with the introduction of Android 5.0 Lollipop, only to be redesigned with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and now they have refined their latest changes to satisfy the demand of their user base.
With the introduction of Android 7.0 Nougat, Google is letting us really have control over Do Not Disturb mode by including a new feature within the Notification section of an application.
This feature lets you set up any number of applications that you want to bypass Android’s Do Not Disturb mode. So no you can allow your work, mobile game, or social application to continue to alert you about notifications while you silence everything else.
Pixel Override Do Not Disturb Mode
- Press the Volume Down button until Do Not Disturb mode is enabled
- Launch the Settings application
- Scroll down and tap on the ‘Notifications’ option
- Locate and tap on the application you want to bypass Do Not Disturb mode
- Then toggle the ‘Override Do Not Disturb’ option on
Explanation
Google really upset people when they changed up the priority system with Android 5.0 Lollipop. This was such a big issue that OEMs decided to develop a specific mode to satisfy that segment of their customers. Thankfully, Google made things right with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and I am very impressed with the way they have improved it with Android 7.0 Nougat. So the first thing you’ll need to do is to actually enable Do Not Disturb mode.
You’ll do this by pressing the Volume Down button until you see the white circle icon in the Status Bar with a horizontal line through it (as shown in the image below). Once it is on, know that the only thing audible alerts you will hear will be alarms, reminders and anything else you have personally setup. From here, you can go ahead and launch the Settings application and then scroll down a bit so you can tap on the Notifications option.
Now, you will see a long list of all the applications you have installed on your device. You’ll want to scroll through this list and tap on the application you want to override the Do Not Disturb mode rules. Once you tap on the an application, you’ll see the Override Do Not Disturb option at the bottom of the list. There’s a toggle to the right and all you have to do is toggle this feature on and the app will ignore Do Not Disturb mode.
From here, you can either tap the Back button, so you can pick out another app that you want to override Do Not Disturb mode, or you can simply tap on the Home button to go back to the Home Screen. You’re allowed to give any number of applications or games the ability to bypass Do Not Disturb mode, so feel free to set up the ones you want. And as always, you have the ability to come back to this area of the Settings application and disable this feature if it turns out you don’t like an application overriding Do Not Disturb mode.
Android has always been about giving you the ability to customize the device exactly how you want to use it, and I really appreciate how much work Google put into this feature.
