Mishal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is updating Android’s Do Not Disturb mode to make it even more customizable in Android 16.
- Android 16 lets you create custom preferred modes with your own name, icon, and settings.
- You can toggle between these preferred modes from the Settings app or the new Quick Settings tile.
When you need to focus on something, turning on Android’s Do Not Disturb mode is a great way to eliminate distractions. Do Not Disturb mode lets you block alerts from apps, messages, calls, and alarms until you turn them off. You can customize it a bit so it runs on a schedule and lets you pass alerts from specific apps, people, and alarms, but that’s about it. However, with Android 16, Google is introducing a new feature called Priority Mode. This is basically an enhanced version of “Do Not Disturb” mode.
Back in August, when Google released an early beta of Android 15’s first quarterly platform release, I discovered the Priority Mode feature in development. When you enable Priority mode for the first time, Priority mode replaces the existing Do Not Disturb menu. The new Priority Mode menu offered a similar UI to the Do Not Disturb menu, but with some additional display settings taken directly from Digital Wellbeing’s Bedtime mode, and a completely custom mode with its own name and icon. There was an option to create a . , and settings. Android 15 QPR1 Beta 1 also had its own Quick Settings tile for the Priority Mode feature, but nothing happened when I interacted with it.
This changed with Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2, which Google released last month. After enabling Preferred Mode in the latest update, I noticed that Google not only updated the Preferred Mode menu in the Settings app, but also made the Quick Settings tile fully functional. The new quick settings tile for preferred modes is the most notable change, as it opens a dialog that allows you to quickly select which preferred mode you want to enable. The tile displays the number of enabled priority modes, if any.
The preferred mode menu update for Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2 begins with a new introductory screen for the existing modes: Event and Sleep. However, for now, the graphics used for each intro screen are placeholders, but Google may update them in future releases. Another change to the menus in QPR1 Beta 2 is a new UI for customizing activation triggers and notification settings. Additionally, the mode icon now lights up when you turn it on, which is a nice touch.
Mishal Rahman / Android Authority
Google has added a number of new icons to choose from when creating a custom priority mode. There’s no option to upload your own icon, but Android allows you to choose from 40 icons in QPR1 Beta 2. So we hope you can find an icon that suits your custom mode.
Mishal Rahman / Android Authority
Android’s new Priority Mode features (like the improved UI in the Quick Settings panel that I enabled) will likely arrive in next year’s Android 16 update, given how big the changes are. However, it’s possible that Google will roll this out sooner, such as in Q1, Q2, or Q3 of Android 15. We don’t know exactly when priority mode will be introduced, but we’ll keep an eye on it. This feature is nearing release.
