Millions of iPhones can unlock ‘car mode’ that tells people you’re driving – and can even reply to pals for you

YOUR iPhone may be one of millions with an easy-to-miss “car mode” designed for when you’re driving.

It has some extremely handy benefits, including the ability to automatically text your friends and family for you.

The feature is called Driving Focus, and it’s a free Apple feature built into iOS.

However, it’s only available on iPhones that have updated to iOS 15 or later.

So check that first by going into Settings > General > Software Update.

Once that’s done, you’ll be able to start using Driving Focus.

HOW TO SET UP DRIVING FOCUS ON IPHONE

First you’ll need to set up the Driving Focus.

It’s a bit like a Do Not Disturb mode, but specifically for driving.

Go into Settings then choose Focus, tap on the Add button, and then choose Driving.

Then tap on Customise Focus, which will give you on-screen instructions for setting it up.

For instance, you’ll be able to choose whether to allow some notifications through the Focus.

For instance, you can add certain contacts that can break through your Driving Focus with phone calls.

And you can ask Siri to read message replies to you so you don’t need to physically look at your phone.

HOW TO TURN DRIVING FOCUS ON

To turn it on, simply go into the Control Centre (by swiping down from the top-right), touch and hold on Focus, then choose Driving.

If it’s worked, you’ll see the Driving icon – a small car symbol – appear in your status bar.

It’ll also show up in the Lock Screen, and your status will be shown in the Messages app too.

That means when someone sends you an iMessage, they’ll be able to see that you’ve silenced notifcations.

However they can still override this and notify you if it’s urgent.

CUSTOMISE DRIVING FOCUS

There are several other Driving Focus tweaks you might want to make.

For instance, go into Settings > Focus > Driving and you can choose to have the feature active automatically.

This can be done based on “detected motion”, or when you connect to your car’s Bluetooth.

Additionally, it can be activated when you connect to your car’s Apple CarPlay feature.

You can customise notifications based on specific contacts.

And you can also set up an auto-reply.

This will automatically reply to your contact favourites and people you’ve allowed notifications from.

It only works when you’ve got Driving Focus activated.

Once you turn it off, those auto-replies will no longer be sent.

Just go into Settings > Focus > Driving and choose Auto-Reply.

Then select an option from the list:

• No One
• Recents
• Favourites
• All Contacts

You can then edit the automatic reply to let people know that you’re driving and you can’t respond right now.

Apple’s default suggestion is: “I’m driving with Focus turned on. I’ll see your message when I get where I’m going.”