Items held during do not disturb must merge into history, not vanish

What it is

Items held by focus or do not disturb should land, when the mode ends, in the same history as swipes and timeouts—not in a bubble that lives a few seconds, and not in the trash when the mode turns off. Merge means they appear as history rows, keep original event time, and open the object. It does not mean inventing a second "focus inbox" people have to learn.

Focus's contract is blocked ≠ deleted. This group answers where the not-deleted things go: into this list, with other vanished items.

Why it happens

People retrieving do not first ask "did I have focus on." They ask "where is that one from just now." If held items travel a channel that flashes only at mode end, missing the flash is loss, and it disagrees with the history entrance. Merging into history makes the retrieval strategy "look in history," whatever the reason for vanishing. A mark can distinguish ("during focus"); the container should be one.

Merge also avoids doubles: pushing the held items again at exit puts one copy in the shade and one in history, which is read as a new arrival. Write history (and, if needed, one tappable digest pointing at it). Do not replay the original interrupts.

Studying it

Deliver several non-exception items during focus. At exit, compare "write history," "digest only, don't keep," "drop," and "republish as new arrivals." Watch retrieval, false-new, and whether people dare use the mode again.

Independent variables: landing place at exit, whether interrupts are replayed, whether history marks held items. Dependent variables: retrieval rate, old items treated as new, later enable of the mode.

Labs that prompt "go look at the digest" overstate a flash's success. Let exit happen while someone is doing something else. Re-sounding is not retrievability—that is another interrupt, not history.

Where it stops holding

Expired items should still enter history marked dead, so people do not try to complete a corpse; security items that were held and are still live may need one non-bombarding reminder at exit in addition to history. Encrypted content may enter history only as source and time. If the user has turned history itself off, the mode contract needs another landing (in-app unread) and must not drop silently.

Applying it

• Write non-exception arrivals during focus into the same history, with original time and a "during focus" mark.
• At exit, offer a digest that points at history; do not replay the originals as new interrupts.
• History filters should include "during focus," but the default view sits with ordinary vanished items.
• Verify by sending three non-exception items during focus and ending with no spoken hint. All three should be findable in history at original times, with no three new sounds in the shade. Missing them is loss; three more rings is replay, not merge.

Related

• Within the group: H5.11.1 Dismissed notices must be replayable in history · H5.11.2 History must keep original timestamps, not reorder by time of viewing · H5.11.4 Missing history drives repeated checking for updates
• Adjacent: H5.03 Do not disturb and focus · H5.04 Notification bundling · H5.10 Push frequency and quiet hours
• Search terms: DND history · held notifications · merge into history