How to separate work and personal calls on Android

A step-by-step guide to setting up per-SIM call rules on Android so your work line goes quiet after hours without silencing your personal contacts.

Jan 9, 2024Updated Apr 23, 2026

Quick answer

You can separate work and personal calls on a dual-SIM Android phone by assigning rules to your work SIM—often a time schedule—and building an allowlist of contacts who can still reach you when those rules are active. Rules can also use other triggers (such as Wi‑Fi or week-based patterns) alongside or instead of a simple daily window; see Hush's in-app options for what your device supports. Android does not offer this natively, but Hush handles per-SIM rules directly. Once configured, your personal line stays fully active while your work line follows the conditions you control.

What you need before you start

A dual-SIM Android phone with both SIMs active
Hush installed from the Google Play Store
About 10 min to complete the initial setup
A clear idea of which SIM is your work line and which is personal

Step 1: Confirm which SIM is which

Before setting any rules, make sure you know which SIM slot corresponds to which line.

Go to Settings, then Network and Internet, then SIM cards. You will see both SIMs listed, usually as SIM 1 and SIM 2. Tap each one to see the phone number associated with it. If you are not sure which is which, call your own work number from another phone and watch which SIM shows the incoming call.

Give each SIM a clear label in this settings screen. Something like "Work" and "Personal" is enough. These labels appear throughout the system and make it easier to identify lines at a glance.

Step 2: Open Hush and assign SIM identities

Open Hush and navigate to the SIM management screen. Hush will detect both SIMs on your device. Match them to the labels you set: confirm which one is work and which is personal.

This tells Hush which set of rules applies to each line. Everything you set up from here applies to the SIM you assign it to.

Step 3: Set rules for your work SIM (often starting with a schedule)

In Hush, select your work SIM and create a rule. Most people begin with a time-based quiet window based on when they genuinely stop working. A reasonable starting point is quiet from 19:00 to 08:00 on weekdays, and all day on weekends if your role allows it. When you are ready, add other conditions to that rule in the app—such as Wi‑Fi or week-based options—so quiet mode can follow context as well as the clock.

During this window, calls to your work SIM will not ring through to you. You can choose whether they go to voicemail silently or are declined. Voicemail is usually the better option so callers can leave a message if something is genuinely urgent.

Do not set the quiet hours too conservatively at first. It is easier to expand quiet time later than to deal with missed messages because you over-restricted. Start with evenings and see how it feels for a week.

Step 4: Configure your work SIM allowlist

An allowlist is a list of specific contacts whose calls bypass your quiet hours. Even with your work SIM on a schedule, there are probably one or two people who should be able to reach you for genuine emergencies.

In Hush, open the allowlist settings for your work SIM. Add contacts individually. Keep this list short. Three to five people at most. If you find yourself adding ten colleagues, you are building an always-on system again with extra steps. Ask yourself: if this person cannot reach me at 22:00, what is the realistic worst outcome?

Typical allowlist candidates: your direct manager, a business partner, one key colleague you cover emergencies for.

Step 5: Leave your personal SIM unchanged

Your personal SIM does not need quiet hours unless you want them. Leave it configured however you normally have it. The goal is asymmetry: one line follows a schedule, the other does not.

If you do want quiet time on your personal SIM as well (for example, from 00:00 onward), you can set that separately in Hush. But keep the rules distinct. Work quiet hours and personal quiet hours serve different purposes and should be configured independently.

Step 6: Test that emergency contacts ring through

Before relying on this setup, test it. Ask one of your allowlist contacts to call your work number during a quiet window (or simulate one by temporarily setting a quiet window to the current time).

Confirm that:

Their call rings through on your work SIM
A call from a number not on the allowlist does not ring through
Your personal SIM is unaffected by the work SIM quiet window

This test takes 2 min and saves you from finding out there is a configuration issue at the worst possible time.

Step 7: Adjust after the first week

The first week of any new notification setup is a calibration period. You will likely find one or two things you want to change.

Common adjustments:

The quiet window starts too late (you keep getting calls at 19:00 when you actually want quiet from 18:00)
Someone you forgot to allowlist calls and gets blocked
You realise you want full weekend quiet, not just evenings

Treat the first week as a draft. Revisit your settings after seven days and make adjustments based on what actually happened.

Common problems

My work SIM is silent but I can still see call notifications on the screen. Check whether Hush is set to block the ringtone only or also suppress notifications. You want the call not to visually interrupt you either. In Hush settings, look for notification suppression options and enable them for the quiet window.

I blocked a legitimate call from a new work contact. This happens when someone you know calls from a number you have not saved. Open your recent calls, find the missed call, and add that number to your work allowlist or save it as a contact. Going forward, new numbers from people you know will need to be added as they come up. There is no perfect fix for this. The alternative (allowing all unknown callers) defeats the purpose of the allowlist.

My work SIM quiet hours affect my personal SIM. This usually means a device-level Do Not Disturb rule is conflicting with Hush. Go to your Android notification settings and check whether a system Do Not Disturb schedule is running at the same time. Disable any system-level schedules that overlap with your Hush rules so Hush has full control.

FAQ

Can I have different rules on weekdays vs weekends? Yes. Hush supports separate schedules for weekdays and weekends. Set a more restrictive window for weekends if your role is genuinely Monday to Friday.

What happens to work calls during quiet hours if someone calls twice quickly? Calls that do not bypass the allowlist are blocked regardless of how many times someone calls. If you want repeat callers to get through (useful for genuine emergencies), you can enable a "repeat caller" exception in Hush, which lets through any number that calls twice within 3 min.

Does this work if I travel and my SIMs are used in different countries? Yes. The rules apply to the SIM identity in the slot, not to the network it is connected to. Quiet hours follow your SIM, not your location.