You switch on Do Not Disturb. The buzzing stops. The silence is glorious. Then, twenty minutes later, your thumb finds the 918Kiss icon anyway.
So did the silence work? That depends on what you wanted it to change. If you wanted fewer interruptions, yes. If you wanted fewer opens, the research says it is not that simple, and sometimes the effect runs the other way.
Here is the full ranking, led from the top: five setups, from most to least likely to cut the opens you did not plan.
At a Glance: The Short Answer
- Do Not Disturb removes outside triggers (buzzes and banners). It does not remove inside triggers (boredom, habit, restlessness).
- In one two-week field study, people who got alerts in three scheduled batches a day unlocked their phones less, while people who got no alerts were no less likely to unlock.
- In a 24-hour no-notifications test, some people checked their phones more, not less.
- No study I found tested 918Kiss itself, so treat everything below as evidence about phones in general.
Why Silence Does Not Always Mean Fewer Opens
Two kinds of triggers
An outside trigger is a buzz, a banner or a badge. An inside trigger is the itch you feel before you even notice it. Habit research shows how quick this loop is: in a study of smartphone habits by Oulasvirta and colleagues, a typical check lasted under 30 seconds and involved unlocking the screen and opening a single app, and checks clustered around particular situations.
Do Not Disturb only deals with the first kind. The second kind walks right past it.
What the Do Not Disturb Challenge found
Pielot and Rello gave 30 volunteers one day with no notifications and one normal day. On the quiet day, people felt significantly less distracted and more productive. But they also felt more worried about missing notifications, and they agreed more strongly that they turned on the phone to check for missed notifications. In interviews, 12 of the 30 said they checked their devices more often than usual.
Because it was a small study of 30 people and had not been peer-reviewed when reported, it is a signal, not a rule. It still shows that taking the buzz away can replace interruptions with self-checking.
The Ranking: Five Setups for Your 918Kiss Opens, Best to Worst
This ranking is mine, built from the studies above. It ranks how well each setup is supported by evidence for changing how often you pick up the phone, and where a study measured something else, I say so.
#1: Scheduled batching, three check-ins a day
The Fitz and Kushlev field experiment in 2019 assigned over 200 people in India to different notification schedules for two weeks. The group that received alerts in three batches a day, at 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm, reported feeling happier, more productive, less stressed and more attentive than the control group, and unlocked their phones less often. This is the only setup in this list with evidence of fewer unlocks.
#2: Selective alerts, keep only what truly matters
In the Pielot and Rello follow-up, 22 of the 30 participants said they planned to change how they manage notifications, and after two years 13 of those 22 were still following through. The report added that more than half reduced the number of notifications they received daily. This setup does not prove fewer opens, but it shows something rare: it lasts.
#3: Alerts off with the phone out of reach
Kushlev, Proulx and Dunn ran a two-week experiment with 221 students. In one week alerts were on and phones were within easy reach. In the other week alerts were off and phones were kept away. Self-reported inattention and hyperactivity scores were significantly higher when alerts were on. The study measured attention, not how often people opened apps, and relied on questionnaires, so it ranks third.
#4: Hourly batching
In the same Fitz study, the group that received alerts once an hour, on the hour, felt about the same as the control group on happiness, productivity, stress and attention. Batching too often brought few benefits.
#5: Blanket Do Not Disturb with no plan
The no-alerts group in the Fitz study reported more anxiety than groups that received alerts, and they were no less likely to unlock their phones. The Pielot and Rello group checked more to look for missed notifications. Silence by itself is the weakest setup here.
Match Your Pattern to a Rank
Not everyone needs the same fix. Use your own habits to choose where to start.
If the buzz usually pulls you in
You open 918Kiss mostly right after a banner or message. Start at #1. Batching removes the pull without leaving you in the dark.
If you open it out of habit with no alert at all
Your triggers are inside. Silence will not help much, so pair batching with a short plan for the moment the itch arrives, such as standing up, drinking water or messaging a friend before you tap.
If you feel anxious when the phone is quiet
Take the anxious groups in the studies seriously. Keep a short list of exceptions (#2) and use a scheduled batch so you know exactly when you will catch up.
How to Set Up the Winner in Two Minutes
On iPhone
Since iOS 15, Settings > Notifications > Scheduled Summary lets you pick the times your summary arrives and which apps feed into it. Apple notes that Time Sensitive notifications are always delivered immediately, outside the summary schedule, so reserve that for calls and alerts you truly cannot miss.
On Android
Android’s Do Not Disturb lets you choose which people and apps may still reach you, and you can set it to turn on automatically on a schedule, including through Bedtime mode (under Settings > Modes on Android 14 and later). You can also let repeat callers through if the same person calls twice within 15 minutes. Menus vary by phone, so search “Do Not Disturb” in settings if yours looks different.
Pick your three windows
Choose three set times, like the 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm used in the Fitz study, or three that suit your day. Decide in advance whether any window includes a 918Kiss session, and if one does, set a timer and a spending limit before you start.
Your Seven-Day Test
Do not trust a study, including these. Test it on your own phone.
Days 1 to 3: measure
Do nothing different. Write down how many times you open 918Kiss each day, using your phone’s screen time or app activity data.
Days 4 to 7: change one thing
Switch to batching, and count again. If your opens fall, keep it. If they do not, your triggers are probably inside, and the next step is a plan for the boredom moments, not more silence.
Questions Players Ask
Does Do Not Disturb make me open 918Kiss less?
Not reliably. The evidence suggests it reduces interruptions but may not reduce unlocks, and in a 24-hour test some people checked their phones more. Batching had the best support for fewer unlocks.
Should I turn off all notifications instead?
Not necessarily. The people who received no alerts in the Fitz study reported more anxiety and unlocked their phones just as often. A few scheduled batches seem to work better than total silence.
Is checking more often after Do Not Disturb normal?
It appears common. In the Pielot and Rello study, people agreed more strongly that they turned on the phone to check for missed notifications, and 12 of 30 said they checked more than usual.
Do these results apply to 918Kiss?
They apply to phone notifications in general. None of the studies tested 918Kiss or gaming apps, so use them as a starting point and run the seven-day test yourself.
Responsible Play: The Part That Matters Most
Fewer interruptions only help if the opens you keep are the ones you chose. Before any session, decide how long you will play, set a limit you can comfortably afford to lose, and stop when either one is reached. Keep money for bills, food and family out of the plan entirely.
The rules matter as well. In October 2023 the Malaysian Court of Appeal ruled that online gambling is an offence in Peninsular Malaysia under the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953. Know the laws that apply to you, only play where it is lawful for you to do so, and if play stops feeling like a choice, step away and talk to someone you trust or a support service near you.
The Final Call
Do Not Disturb is a good start, but it is a door closed on one side only. If you want fewer 918Kiss opens, build the rhythm: three batches, a short list of true exceptions, and a plan for the moments when the itch comes from inside. Then count. The numbers will tell you more than any study can.
