How To Disable the “Are You Driving” Message on an iPhone

Lee Stanton September 1, 2021

While iPhones are highly sophisticated pieces of technology, they can’t initiate a conversation with you on their own. Therefore, they can’t ask “Are you driving?” when you’re in your car.

However, they do have sensors that can detect when you’re driving and shut down certain functions for safety. When the “Driving Mode” setting is enabled, it will automatically silence your notifications and calls whenever it detects you’re in a moving vehicle. This is convenient for the driver but not so much if you’re a passenger.

Read on to find out how to disable driving mode from your iPhone. In addition, we’ll show you how to customize the driving mode settings, so when you’re using it, it handles calls and text messages in a way that suits you.

How To Disable Driving Mode iPhone Permanently

You can either disable “Driving Mode” permanently (so it only activates when you manually select it) or temporarily (and manually disable it each time it’s activated). To permanently disable the feature from your iPhone:

Open “Settings.”
Tap “Do Not Disturb.”
From the “Do Not Disturb While Driving” section, choose “Activate.”
Tap “Manually.”

To temporarily disable “Driving Mode”:

Access the “Control Center” by swiping from the top right of the screen.
Tap on the car icon.
From the lock screen, choose the “Do Not Disturb While Driving” notification.
Tap “I’m Not Driving.”

Disable Location Settings

Driving Mode uses your phone’s location services to determine whether you might be driving. Another way to permanently disable it is to disable location services for “Do Not Disturb While Driving.” Here’s how:

Open “Settings.”
Tap “Privacy,” “Location Services,” then “System Services.”
Now turn off “Location-Based Alerts.”

Deciding How and When to Use Driving Mode

Driving Mode is an Apple feature designed to add to your safety when driving by helping you stay focused. When enabled, it silences or limits your text messages and other notifications.

Driving Mode activates once it senses that you might be driving. You can disable it by choosing to enable it manually or since it uses your location services to tell whether you’re driving, you can disable location services.

The feature offers plenty of customization options including deciding how it’s activated. For example, when connected to your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay. You also can write your auto-reply text message to send as a response to messages and calls.

Do you use Driving Mode often? If so, what do you like best about it? If not, what do you think could make it better? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.