iPhone iMessage Auto Reply Guide

[nerdslife_team]

It’s way more common to get a text than a call these days. When you’re on a call, setting a “busy” message is easy, but what about texts? Good news: if you’re an iPhone user, you can set up auto-replies for iMessages. It’s a pretty straightforward process, although it’s not found within the Messages settings.

Setting Up Auto-Reply Using Focus Mode (iOS 15 and later)

The best way to manage auto-replies is through the Focus feature, which is available on iOS 15 and later. This feature allows more granular control over notifications and auto-replies.

Focus has a cool feature called ‘Share Focus Status’. When enabled, people messaging you see a notification that you’ve silenced your alerts, so they don’t think you’re ignoring them. Let’s get this setup:

1. Open your iPhone settings and tap on ‘Focus’.
   

2. Tap the ‘Focus Status’ option.
   

   

3. Toggle ‘Messages’ to ON so that the Messages app can share your Focus status. This is a permission setting.
   

   

4. Finally, enable the ‘Auto-Reply’ toggle. When enabled and your Focus mode is on, people messaging you will be notified that you have the mode enabled.
   

   

5. When people message you while Focus mode is active, they will get a notification. They can still send you a notification by pressing ‘Notify Anyway’.
   

   

6. If they tap ‘Notify anyway’, you’ll get the message and they’ll get a confirmation that you’ve been notified.
   

   
   
   
   

7. You can choose to disable ‘Share Focus Status’ for specific Focus modes. To do that, tap on the focus mode.
   

   

8. Then, turn the toggle for “Share Focus Status” OFF.
   

   

Setting Up Auto-Reply with Do Not Disturb (iOS 14 and earlier)

If you’re running iOS 14 or an older version, you’ll set up auto-replies through the ‘Do Not Disturb’ settings. Keep in mind, it only works when your phone is in DND mode.

1. Open your iPhone’s settings, and tap on ‘Do Not Disturb’.
   

   

2. Scroll down and tap ‘Auto-Reply To’.
   

   

3. Choose who you want to send auto-replies to: Favorites, Recent Contacts, or All Contacts.
   

   

4. Go back and tap ‘Auto-Reply’ to customize the message.
   

   

5. You can either use the default message or change it to your preferred text.
   

   

Now, when your phone is in DND, anyone who messages you that is in the category you selected will receive your set auto-reply. They can break through the DND by sending the word “Urgent.”