When iOS 6 added Do Not Disturb, I was overjoyed. This prevents my phone from buzzing or otherwise disturbing me during my usual sleeping hours; in my case, from ten in the evening until seven in the morning.

In the typical Apple fashion, they thought about this enough to allow your Favorite contacts’ phone calls to pass through DND and ring immediately. (See Settings → Do Not Disturb → Allow Calls From) So, if Erin calls me, regardless of hour, my iPhone will ring, Do Not Disturb be damned. Unfortunately, however, this did not apply for text messages; even messages coming from Favorites were silenced.

Thanks to this post from Katie Floyd, I’ve learned in iOS 10, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can engage “Emergency Bypass” for an individual contact and allow their calls and text messages to ring through, regardless of Do Not Disturb settings. To do so, go to their contact card, and go to set their Ringtone or Text Tone. In there, you’ll find a toggle for Emergency Bypass.

Unfortunately, however, Emergency Bypass doesn’t honor your phone’s vibration settings. My expectation was that when I have my phone silenced using the side switch, Emergency Bypass will allow my phone to vibrate, but it would not make any audible tone. Instead, it allows my phone to actually make the text tone, not respecting the side switch. Bummer.

Nevetheless, should you have someone in your life that you want to make sure can get a hold of you, your own social setting be damned, this is hidden gem.