How to use Quiet Hours in Windows 10 Mobile
You all must be using Cortana on your Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1 and PC. Cortana can do a plethora of things like telling you jokes, finding a cheaper restaurant, sing you a song. However, along with all this, Cortana also comes with a very nice feature, called Quiet Hours. Quiet hours on Windows 10 allows you to get rid of unwanted calls and messages during a certain time period. In this guide, I share how to use Quiet Hours in Windows 10 Mobile.
How to use Quiet Hours in Windows 10 Mobile
When it’s on, any phone calls you get will go straight to voicemail, and all notifications will be silent (unless you’ve told Cortana you’d like to hear from the people you have in your breakthrough list).
To Turn it on right now:
- Launch Cortana> Click on the Hamburger Menu> and then tap Cortana’s Notebook> Quiet hours.
- Click on Turn On Right now to turn on quiet hours immediately. It will stay on until you turn it off, or until any automatic rules you’ve set up kick in.
When it’s turned on, you will see a Half moon kind of icon next to your SIM icon.
Automatic Rules:
Are you a college-going, student? Just like me, do you also have to put your phone on silent mode, but you always forget to do so? Well, No worries! Cortana will do that for you! With Automatic Rules, you can have Cortana turn on Quiet Hours automatically at specific times (say, from 10:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M., for example), or turn it on for you whenever you’re in a meeting that’s marked “busy” on your calendar.
To Turn it on, follow the same steps, until you reach Quiet hours, then click on Automatic Rules. Now select the day, and time you want it to turn on automatically.
Break-through rules
Follow the same steps as above until you reach the Quiet Hours window. Under Break-through rules, you will find Edit Break-through list, click on that if you want to add some exceptions like your family member. Adding your contacts in the list is very simple. Just click on Edit Break-through list> Tap on “+”> Select people you want to break-through. Now, these very people can call, or text you, even when Quiet hours in On.
More Rules to Break Through
Now, what if somebody makes a call from a number which is not in your contact list and its importance. Usually, in this situation, the person would call you multiple times to get your attention, and this is where the rules kick in.
Calls:
- Tick the box which says, Anyone, rings through if they call twice in 3 minutes. This will let anyone break-through if they call you twice in three minutes.
- Tick the box which says, People on the list ring through. This lets your contacts, which you added in your exceptions list, call you, but can’t text you.
Text:
You can send auto-reply. You need to turn on the option “Texts from people on the list get through”. If they happen to send you a message, which will not be delivered to you anyway, they get an automatic response saying, Hi, the person you’re trying to reach is busy and may not respond right away.
However, I miss another option, which used to be there in Windows Phone 8.1 of letting your inner-circles break-through, just select Ask inner circle: Breakthrough? Those people will receive a reply from Cortana that says, “Hi, [your name] is busy and may not respond right away. But if it’s urgent, just text back “Knock Knock” and your message will break through.
How often do you use Quiet Hours in Windows 10 Mobile? Sound off below.
