Hide notifications with Focus Assist in Windows 10

When to use Focus Assist?

• To hide unwanted notifications during meetings, conferences and presentations.
• To remove distracting notifications when working.

How to enable Focus Assist in Windows 10

1. Click the ‘Action Centre’ button, to the right of the clock in your task bar (where notifications display).
2. Click the ‘Focus Assist’ tile (with the crescent moon icon) to cycle through the available options. The tile will be highlighted when enabled.
   1. If you don’t see Focus Assist tile, you may have to click the ‘Expand’ text at the bottom of the Action Centre.
3. The two Focus Assist options:
   1. ‘Priority only‘ – block notifications except from allowed apps (customisable, see below). E.g. block email & instant messaging notifications but allow phone calls.
   2. ‘Alarms only‘ – block all notifications except for alarms in Windows 10 (not customisable).

How to make Focus Assist useful

1. Go to the Focus Assist tile in the Action Centre, right click & click ‘Go to Settings’.
2. You will see options to switch on/off the Focus Assist function. Under the Priority only option, you can ‘Customise your priority list’.

   

3. ‘Automatic rules’ enables further customisation.
   1. Schedule Focus Assist using ‘During these times’ to automatically switch on during certain hours. Click the text to customise the hours, frequencies and Focus Assist type.
   2. Enable when presenting – switch the toggle on next to ‘When I’m duplicating my display’. Focus Assist will automatically turn on whenever you plug your display into an external monitor or project and mirror the screen.
   3. ‘When I’m playing a game’.
   4. ‘When I’m at home’ – you will need to tell Windows (Cortana) your home address.
4. Finally, when Focus Assist switches off, you will receive a notification summary of everything you missed while it was turned on. This is enabled by default.

It may take some time to get the right combination of settings to work for you.