An iPhone user named Betsy says she recently started sleeping through her iPhone alarms. Initially, Betsy attributed this to stress and a new medication. That is, of course, until she learned about the new “attention aware” feature.
TikTok user Betsy (@basicallybetsy_) posted her video, which has already amassed 2.1 million views, on Jan. 7. “If you have an iPhone and you’ve recently been sleeping through your alarms, watch this video,” Betsy says to start the video.
How do you turn off the ‘attention aware’ feature?
“Go into settings and at the top of the settings, search ‘attention aware’ features, and shut this little toggle off,” Betsy says. “Apparently, with the new update, Apple thought it was cute to silence some notifications and turn down the volume on certain things, such as alarms.”
“So you’re not delusional. You’re not super tired. And you’re not all of a sudden not able to wake up from your alarms,” she says. “Most likely, they haven’t been the same volume they have been previously, or it’s not even ringing at all.”
“I literally felt like I was losing my mind. Luckily, I found it in a comments section, so I’m making this video so other people don’t fall for the same trap.”
What is the ‘attention aware’ feature?
Apple’s website states that the “attention aware” feature is available on iPhone X or later, and, as Betsy explained, it uses Face ID to check whether you’re looking at the iPhone. So if you’re looking at your iPhone, the display will stay lit and you’ll get alerts at a lower volume.
It seems likely that “attention aware” was activated on Betsy’s iPhone after a software update. This same scenario happened to a woman and her iPhone 15 alarm in April. A couple of weeks later, another woman blasted Apple after experiencing the same issue.
In the comments section, viewers expressed outrage at the feature and detailed what they missed because of it.
“Explains why I’ve been actively missing texts for days,” said one user, accompanied by a face with symbols on its mouth emoji.
A second user wrote, “I was FOUR HOURS late to work the other day because of this.”
Another person wrote, “I have major beef with Apple alarms. In the past, I feel like they just randomly didn’t go off. My advice is to get an actual alarm clock.”
@basicallybetsy_ #greenscreen ♬ original sound – basicallybetsyblue💙
The Daily Dot reached out to both Betsy and Apple via email for comment.
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