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Help Airplane mode on whatsapp/telegram only?

spman

Android Enthusiast
Feb 26, 2013
441
35
Hi,

How to turn on airplane mode (no data, no wifi) for only whatsapp/telegram app? (not whole phone airplane mode)

How to turn on airplane mode for the whole phone except 1 or 2 apps? For example turn on whole phone on airplane mode except chrome browser (use chrome browser like normal, only chrome browser has data/wifi connection).

I want to use my phone like normal with data to surf webpage in browser and other phone functions, and I do not want to be disturbed by whatsapp/telegram. I want whatsapp/telegram to be "offline" like airplane mode.

If possible, I also hope to automate whatsapp/telegram app to airplane mode (no data, no wifi) from daily 1AM to 7AM while I am sleeping, so if use my phone in the middle of the at night I will not be distracted by whatsapp/telegram.

Thanks.
 
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Airplane mode isn't the answer: that disables the wireless interfaces themselves rather than blocking individual apps.

You can of course turn notifications off for these apps. If you want to do that on a schedule you could try using your phone's "do not disturb" settings: those can be scheduled, and with a little fiddling you should be able to select which apps are silenced.

The alternative, nearer to what you ask, would be to use a firewall and block the apps you don't want from network connectivity. If your phone is not rooted you can use something like "No Root Firewall". The simplest is probably to set it up to block everything except the apps you want and then turn it on/off as required. Whether this can be automated on a schedule I don't know.
 
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I do not see any selection of apps in "do not disturb" options. Do not disturb when switched on is applied to the whole phone. I am using samsung note 8.
Do Not Disturb generally applies to everything except the apps that are listed as exceptions. One of the exception categories is messages, so you should click on that and set appropriately, since it seems to be messages that you particularly want to block and the default may not be what you want.

I'm afraid I don't have a Samsung, so I'm talking about stock Android settings here. The option should still be there with a Samsung, but they may have renamed it or moved it around a bit, as they tend to do with system settings. Here is what it looks like on my phone:

Screenshot_20200529-093759.png

You'd probably want to click on the messages thing and set it to allow messages from nobody at all. I'm assuming here that the system is smart enough to recognise Signal and Telegram as message apps, but if it isn't it should suppress notifications from them completely. There are also settings to choose whether it suppresses just sound or sound + visuals.
 
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Samsung do not disturb looks like this https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/mobile-devices/be-distraction-free-do-not-disturb-galaxy-note8/

Is there any app that can show a more obvious display or maybe a moving banner that "do not disturb" is active? I feel the symbol is not really noticeable, I might forget that I had "do not disturb" setting on. I used to have airplane mode on/mobile data off for a whole day too and did not notice it too until I reached home at night, I wonder how to remind me my phone is not at "normal" setting.
 
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OK, so it's structured a little different but the elements seem to be there, including scheduling and exceptions. As this only affects notifications it wouldn't interfere with things like the web browser (well I never let any website send me notifications anyway...).

I don't know any way of making it more visible than the notification icon provided. That would require rooting and modifying things like SystemUI and framework-res, so not an option for most. Perhaps some automation app could monitor the state of the phone, detect DND state and do something to make it obvious (does the Note 8 have a notification LED?), but I don't offhand know how (I had a quick look through Tasker and didn't spot anything obvious, though maybe some proxy like notification volume being zero could be used).

But if you use DND on a schedule that would avoid the risk of not turning it off, and might work for some of your uses.
 
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I do not see any selection of apps in "do not disturb" options. Do not disturb when switched on is applied to the whole phone. I am using samsung note 8.

Settings
Apps
(whatever app you are trying to have notifications work for)

The Do Not Disturb setting is located in these settings for each app.

They are off by default, so you only need to go into the settings for the apps that you DO want to override Do Not Disturb.

Then go into Settings, Notifications, and find Do Not Disturb and turn it on.

There is also sometimes a timer available for it as well.
 
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Samsung do not disturb looks like this https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/mobile-devices/be-distraction-free-do-not-disturb-galaxy-note8/

Is there any app that can show a more obvious display or maybe a moving banner that "do not disturb" is active? I feel the symbol is not really noticeable, I might forget that I had "do not disturb" setting on. I used to have airplane mode on/mobile data off for a whole day too and did not notice it too until I reached home at night, I wonder how to remind me my phone is not at "normal" setting.


On my devices (not Samsung) there is a quick setting tile that lets me switch between silent, do not disturb, and normal modes.
 
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Settings
Apps
(whatever app you are trying to have notifications work for)

The Do Not Disturb setting is located in these settings for each app.

They are off by default, so you only need to go into the settings for the apps that you DO want toboverride Do Not Disturb.

Then go into Settings, Notifications, and find Do Not Disturb and turn it on.

There is also sometimes a timer available for it as well.

Can you tell me step by step how to do this “The Do Not Disturb setting is located in these settings for each app.
They are off by default, so you only need to go into the settings for the apps that you DO want toboverride Do Not Disturb.”

I am able to do this only "Settings, Notifications, and find Do Not Disturb and turn it on."
 
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Can you tell me step by step how to do this “The Do Not Disturb setting is located in these settings for each app.
They are off by default, so you only need to go into the settings for the apps that you DO want toboverride Do Not Disturb.”

I am able to do this only "Settings, Notifications, and find Do Not Disturb and turn it on."

Settings
Apps
the app of your choice
Notifications
 
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