Being overloaded with notifications and alerts from important and mundane apps isn’t really anyone’s idea of fun, and if you’re wondering how to turn off notifications on youriPhone, you’re far from alone. Thankfully,iOSoffers several different options to take control of your notifications, whether you just want to turn off the dings while you sleep or permanently halt your most annoying apps.
To disable your most audible apps long-term or turn off the ding while keeping the message on your screen, the Settings app is your best option. Using iOS' different notification options, you can choose which apps are allowed to send you notifications, how those notifications appear, and whether those messages come with an audible chime.
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You can silence social media notifications in Work mode, or turn off your productivity app notifications in Personal mode.
If you want to temporarily silence notifications, a feature called Apple Focus is the easiest way to customize your notification settings for specific activities like working or sleeping. Focus allows you to choose what notifications come through during certain activities. For example, you can turn off all notifications except phone calls from your contacts under Sleep Mode. You can silence social media notifications in Work mode, or turn off your productivity app notifications in Personal mode.
Here’s how to permanently silence notifications using iOS Settings, or temporarily silence notifications using Focus modes.
How to silence notifications on iPhone
iOS offers several different ways to silence your notifications. One of the most common methods is to turn the notification off entirely, which both eliminates the audible chime and prevents the notification from appearing on your screen. This is customizable for each app that you have, but that also means you need to go through your apps one by one. Here’s how.
That’s it – this will disable that app’s ability to send you notifications, and you just have to do the equivalent for each app in your library.
Turn off alert sounds
Another option is to turn off the audible chime, but leave the notifications popping up on your screen and in your notification center. The process is similar:
Stop the app’s notification from showing on your lock screen
Using the same process, you can also change if the notification appears on your lock screen, in your notification center, or pops up as a banner if you are already using your device.
Customizing your notifications can take a long time if you have a whole load of apps installed, but it’s a worthwhile effort to undertake. There are a few options, however, if you want to quickly and temporarily turn all your notifications off.
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How to temporarily silence notifications on iPhone using Focus Mode
If you want to use a more temporary setting to get yourself some silence, you may useApple Focus. This feature allows you to create custom modes so that you can easily customize which notifications you see or even which calls come through based on what activity you are doing at the time. For example, by default, Apple includes a Work mode that limits notifications while you are at work, as well as Sleep and Personal options.
Each of these modes can be customized, and you may also create your own modes. If you want to turn off notifications all the time, the option above of using Settings to individually adjust each app is the best method.
If you want to turn off your social media notifications while you are at work, or silence your work apps while you are off the clock, Focus is the easiest way to do so.
Use the options underSet a Scheduleto automatically schedule when to turn those notifications on and off, such as automatically entering Work focus mode during your regular office hours.
Once you’ve customized your Focus settings, follow steps 1-3 again to turn focus modes on and off – skip this step if you set up a schedule for your focus modes. If you want to change the settings for each mode after that initial walk-through, you can access those settings again by heading toSettings>Focus.
Focus will silence selected notifications while it’s active. Once you exit that Focus mode, you’ll then receive those notifications that you missed. That means if you want to permanently stop seeing notifications, adjusting your notifications preferences in Settings is the best choice. If you just want to temporarily adjust your notifications while you are taking a nap, Focus modes are the better choice.
Another option to temporarily disable notifications is touse Apple Screen Time, which is similar to Focus. Screen Time doesn’t just limit notifications, but prevents you from opening certain apps during scheduled downtime, plus also tells you when it’s time to get off your screen.
When an app is disabled either through scheduled downtime or because you went over the limit that you set, you won’t receive notifications until your downtime is over.
