An iPhone has three ways to keep a notification quiet: a Focus such as Sleep or Do Not Disturb, the ringer switch or Action button set to silent, and each app's notification settings. An alert from a server has to get past all three to wake you.
How far it gets is decided by one field the sender sets, the interruption level, and by two settings on your phone.
The four interruption levels
| Level | Gets through a Focus | Sounds with the ringer off | Who can send it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passive | No | No | Any app |
| Active, the default | Only if the Focus allows the app | No | Any app |
| Time Sensitive | Yes, if you allow it for the app and the Focus | No | Any app |
| Critical | Yes | Yes, at the volume the app sets | Apps Apple has approved |
Time Sensitive is the practical choice for most alerts. It gets through a Focus without you adding the app to every Focus by hand, and iOS asks you once whether to allow it. It still follows the ringer switch: on silent, it vibrates.
Critical is the only level that makes a sound with the ringer off. Apple grants it app by app, through an entitlement request, for things like health, home security and public safety, and you have to allow it on the phone as well. Pushover has offered opt-in critical alerts for high-priority messages since February 2020 (source).
What Acciti sends
Acciti sends priorities 1 (High) and 2 (Emergency) as Time Sensitive, Normal as Active, and Quiet and Silent as Passive. An emergency also repeats until someone acknowledges it, so on silent your phone keeps vibrating and your Apple Watch keeps tapping until you answer. Critical Alerts need Apple's entitlement, which Acciti doesn't have yet.
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Acciti's own quiet hours, set on each device, work the same way. During them, Normal and lower priorities arrive silently and wait in the inbox. High and Emergency still ring.
Setting up your iPhone
- Open Settings, then Notifications, choose the app that sends your alerts and turn on Time Sensitive Notifications.
- Open Settings, then Focus. For each Focus you sleep or work in, open Apps and check that Time Sensitive Notifications is on.
- If you sleep with the ringer off, check that Sounds & Haptics plays haptics in silent mode, so a repeating emergency still vibrates.
- On Apple Watch, notifications go to the watch while your iPhone is locked. If you rely on the watch to wake you, check it isn't in silent mode or a Focus of its own.
Testing it
Turn on your Sleep Focus, put the phone on silent, and send yourself a High priority alert:
curl https://acciti.com/v1/messages \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCITI_TOKEN" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"user": "your-user-key", "message": "Focus test", "priority": 1}'It should vibrate and appear on the Lock Screen. Turn the ringer back on and send it again: now it should make a sound with the Focus still on.
The API documentation covers priorities, emergencies and quiet hours in full.
Pushover details as its own pages stated them on 21 October 2026.