Quick tech fix: Stop annoying notifications for good

February 13, 2021

By Kim Komando

Remember the days before our gadgets were buzzing and beeping at us all day long? Yeah, me neither. Maybe your issue is email.

If your inbox is a mess, give yourself the gift of clearing it out. No, you don’t have to go through email by email. Tap or click for steps on archiving your inbox.

Or perhaps your phone is full of apps that won’t leave you alone. I’m willing to bet you’ve got quite a few you haven’t opened in months. Your best bet is to do a quick audit of all your downloads now and then.

Sometimes, you just want the noise to stop without having to spend time navigating a bunch of menus. If notifications are driving you up the wall, keep reading.

If you use an iPhone:

You can turn off notifications for a specific app right from your home screen or lock screen. Pull down the notification screen on your iPhone to see a list of recent ones.

Tap and hold a notification, then tap the three dots in the upper-right corner. You’ll get a popup with a few options:

• Deliver Quietly: This disables the notification from appearing in your lock screen and turns off sounds and banners
• Turn Off: This removes all forms of notification for that app
• Or use the shortcut to the app’s notification settings to customize even further

You can also get these options when a notification comes up on your home screen or lock screen. Tap and hold it, then tap the three dots.

If you’d like to dive a little deeper into all your apps, go to Settings > Notifications and review them individually.

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If you own an Android:

You can follow the same steps on an Android phone. Swipe down on the notification panel to see a list of your notifications. Press and hold on the one you want to turn off and tap Turn off notifications.

You can also long-press a notification as it happens, then tap the settings cog to be taken directly to notification settings. Handy!

For more fine-tuning, go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications. The steps may be slightly different depending on what kind of phone you have.

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Don’t forget about Do Not Disturb

When you want a little silence but don’t want to get rid of specific notifications for good, enlist good old Do Not Disturb. DND typically stops any sounds, vibrations, or light indicators.

On an iPhone, swipe down from the top right of your screen to access the Control Center. Tap the moon icon to set Do Not Disturb mode. That’s the quick and easy way.

You can also go to Settings > Do Not Disturb to fine-tune. You can schedule it to turn on at a particular time or create exceptions.

On an Android phone, swipe down to open the notification shade and tap the Do Not Disturb icon. You can also navigate to Settings > Sound > Do Not Disturb to set exceptions and more. Again, steps may look a little different depending on your phone.

Finally, some peace!