Focus Assist WIN 10

How to Use Focus Assist Feature in Windows 10

"Focus Assist" feature was previously known as "Quiet Hours" in Windows 10 operating system. Recently Microsoft renamed Quiet Hours feature to Focus Assist in newer Windows 10 versions.

Focus Assist feature is quite similar to Do not disturb feature present in smartphones. It automatically hides all notifications such as notifications from apps, contacts, etc so that you can focus on your work. All notifications go straight to Action Center where you can see them any time.

By default Focus Assist feature is turned off but you can turn it on using Action Center or Settings app.

To enable Focus Assist, click on Action Center icon present on the Taskbar notification area. It'll launch Action Center. Now you'll see Focus Assist tile (also known as quick action button) present at the bottom of the Action Center. If you can't see the tile, click on "Expand" link and it'll reveal all tiles.

When you click on Focus Assist tile, it enables the feature in "Priority Mode" which means Windows will show only selected notifications from the priority list.

If you click on the Focus Assist tile again, it switches to "Alarms Only" mode which means Windows will hide all notifications except alarms set by you.

To turn off Focus Assist feature, click on the tile again and it'll disable the feature.

You can also right-click on Action Center icon present in Taskbar and select "Focus Assist" option from the context menu to set it to on, priority only or alarms only mode.

You can also enable Focus Assist feature using Settings app which also allows to customize and change settings related to Focus Assist feature.

1. Open Settings app from Start Menu or by pressing WIN+I keys together.

2. Now go to "System -> Focus assist" section.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch this page using "ms-settings:quiethours" command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

3. In right-side pane, you can turn on/off Focus Assist feature similar to Action Center tile. You can set it to off, Priority only and Alarms only mode.

You can change priority list used by "Priority Only" mode by clicking on "Customize your priority list" link given under "Priority only" option.

You can select whether notifications about incoming calls, text messages (SMS) and reminders should be shown or not. You can also select whether notifications from pinned contacts (People feature) on Taskbar should be shown.

You can also add desired apps to get notifications from those apps in "Priority only" mode.

Windows 10 also allows you to schedule Focus Assist feature. You can take help of "Automatic rules" section to choose the time and activities to automatically enable Focus Assist feature.

You can select the start time, end time, repeats and Focus Assist mode (priority only or alarms only). You can also select whether Focus Assist feature should be enabled automatically when you are duplicating the display to an external monitor or playing a full screen DirectX game.

So you see Focus Assist is quite useful feature if you want a distraction-free work time such as giving a presentation or trying to focus on some documents.

About the author: Rohit AnanD (also known as rtad1428) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in a few tech shows on TV channels.