Bubble
Tell them before they call.
Do Not Disturb blocks calls after they have already arrived — and the people closest to you are usually on the list that punches through anyway.
Bubble works the other way round. You say you are busy, and the handful of people who matter simply see it, on their Lock Screen, before they pick up the phone.
iPhone, iOS 17 and later. Not on the App Store yet.
Three taps, then forget about it
The whole point is that setting a bubble takes less attention than the interruption you are trying to avoid.
Say what you are doing
Listening to music, reading, cooking, in the shower — or type your own. Open-ended, or time-boxed to 2, 10, 15 or 25 minutes.
Pick who sees it
Whoever you chose last time is already selected, so most of the time you do not touch this. Or share it with all of your Bubbles at once.
They see it, you carry on
It appears on their Lock Screen with the time remaining, counting down. No app to open, and nothing to check.
Done early?
One button ends it, and everyone who could see it is told straight away. A bubble that outlives the thing it described is worse than no bubble at all.
Nobody sees you until you let them
Most "presence" apps quietly become a way to watch people. The things that stop that happening here are enforced by the database, not by the app being polite.
Invite and accept, always
You cannot see anyone's status until they have approved you. Knowing somebody's number gets you precisely nothing — there is no path through the system that turns a phone number into a status.
Bubble never asks for your contacts
There is no address book upload and no permission prompt, because there is no need for one. Names you see are resolved by your own iPhone, on your iPhone. Bubble only ever stores a number.
No display names, no profiles, no photos
There is nothing to fill in and nothing to browse. The only thing anyone can learn about you is whether you said you were busy, and only if you told them.
Change your mind and it applies backwards
Remove someone from your Bubbles and a status they could already see disappears for them immediately. Permission is re-checked every single time anything is read.
Statuses end by themselves
Expiry is decided by the server, not by your phone's clock, and an expired bubble stops being readable at the moment it ends rather than whenever something next syncs.
What it does not do
Worth being plain about, because the absences are the product.
It does not block calls
Bubble never touches your phone or anyone else's. If something is urgent, they still ring you — and they will know it is urgent, which is the point.
It does not share your location
Bubble has no idea where you are and never asks. "In the shower" is a thing you typed, not a thing it inferred.
It does not broadcast
There is no feed, no discovery, no suggestions and no way to find anyone. Private by default, to a list you wrote.