iOS 10 has a new option for contacts called Emergency Bypass. When you enable this option for a specific contact, it will alert you of incoming calls and texts from that contact even when Do Not Disturb or Silent mode is enabled. 

As you may know, enabling Do Not Disturb forces your iPhone to silence all calls and alerts that you receive. This is a great feature to keep your phone completely silent while in a meeting or any other place, but it also means that you may miss out on important notifications or even emergency calls.

To solve this problem, Apple has introduced Emergency Bypass feature in iOS 10, which enables sounds and vibrations for alerts received from contacts you’ve specified no matter what. So for instance, if you enable Do Not Disturb or Silent mode on your iPhone and turn on Emergency Bypass for your dad, then all calls and texts from him will come through.

This is a useful feature, but not every person will know about it as it’s hidden deep within Contacts, which makes it hard to spot. To find out how to enable Emergency Bypass for a specific contact, read the steps below.

How to Enable Emergency Bypass for a Contact

Step 1: Launch the Phone app.

Step 2: Go to the Contacts tab.

Step 3: Open the contact you want.

Step 4: Press the Edit button in the top right corner.

Step 5: If you want all calls from this contact to go through, then tap on Ringtone. Otherwise, tap on Text Tone to force texts to go through.

Step 6: Set the Emergency Bypass toggle to On. You can enable Emergency Bypass for either Ringtone, Text Tone or both.

Now that you’ve enabled Emergency Bypass for this contact, you will receive call or text alerts from this contact loud and clear, even if Do Not Disturb or Silent mode is enabled.

What do you think of this feature? Let us know in the comments below.