How to Turn Off Facebook Notifications (All Platforms Covered)
Facebook notifications can pile up fast — likes, comments, friend requests, event reminders, marketplace messages, and more. Whether you're getting too many alerts or just want to reclaim some focus, knowing exactly where to go to turn them off makes a real difference. The process varies depending on whether you're on a phone, tablet, or desktop, and how granular you want the control to be.
Why Facebook Notifications Can Get Out of Hand
Facebook's notification system is designed to pull you back into the app. By default, it enables alerts for almost every type of interaction — someone reacts to your post, a friend has a birthday, a Page you follow publishes something new. Over time, these stack up across multiple channels: in-app notifications, push notifications on your device, and email notifications sent to your inbox.
Each of these channels has its own settings, which is why many people mute one type but keep getting alerts from another and assume the settings didn't work.
Turning Off Notifications on the Facebook Mobile App (iOS & Android)
The mobile app is where most people spend their Facebook time, so this is usually the first place to adjust.
To access notification settings:
- Tap the Menu icon (three horizontal lines, bottom right on iOS or top right on Android)
- Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy, then Settings
- Tap Notifications
- Select Notification Settings
From here, you'll see a breakdown of every notification category Facebook tracks — Comments, Tags, Friend Requests, Birthdays, Marketplace, Groups, Pages, Live Videos, and more.
You can toggle off each category individually or reduce the frequency. For example, under most categories you'll find options like On Facebook, Push, Email, and SMS — letting you silence one delivery method while keeping others active.
To turn off all push notifications at once, you can also go directly into your phone's system settings:
- iPhone: Settings → Notifications → Facebook → toggle off Allow Notifications
- Android: Settings → Apps → Facebook → Notifications → toggle off all or specific notification types
This cuts off all Facebook push alerts at the OS level, regardless of what the app itself is set to.
Turning Off Notifications on Facebook Desktop (Web Browser)
The desktop experience has a slightly different path but covers the same ground.
- Click the bell icon (🔔) in the top navigation bar to open your Notifications panel
- Click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to any individual notification for quick options like "Turn off notifications for this post"
- For broader control, click your profile photo in the top right → Settings & Privacy → Settings
- In the left sidebar, click Notifications
Here you'll find the same category-level controls as on mobile. You can turn off specific notification types under What notifications you receive, or adjust how you receive them under How you get notifications — which includes email and SMS settings in addition to on-Facebook alerts.
Muting vs. Turning Off: What's the Difference?
Facebook gives you a few different levels of control worth understanding:
| Option | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Mute push notifications | Stops phone alerts for a period (1 hour, 8 hours, until tomorrow, etc.) |
| Turn off a notification type | Permanently disables alerts for that category |
| Unfollow a Page or Group | Stops seeing their posts in your feed and removes associated notifications |
| Snooze a person or Page | Hides posts and some notifications for 30 days |
| Deactivate push at OS level | Blocks all Facebook push alerts regardless of in-app settings |
Muting is useful when you want a temporary break. Turning off a notification type is a persistent setting that stays until you change it back. These aren't the same, and it's easy to accidentally choose the wrong one.
Email and SMS Notifications Are Separate Settings
A common source of frustration: you turn off push notifications and still get Facebook emails. That's because email and SMS are controlled independently from push alerts.
To stop Facebook emails:
- Go to Settings → Notifications → Email (on mobile or desktop)
- Disable categories or set all emails to Off
You can also unsubscribe directly from any Facebook notification email by clicking the Unsubscribe link at the bottom — though doing this category by category can take time.
Factors That Affect What You'll See in Settings 🔧
Not everyone's notification settings screen looks identical. A few variables that can affect your experience:
- App version: Facebook updates its interface frequently; menu locations shift between versions
- Platform: iOS and Android have slightly different layouts for both the Facebook app and the system-level settings
- Account type: Business Pages, Marketplace sellers, and users enrolled in Facebook Professional Mode may see additional notification categories
- Region and feature rollout: Some features are tested in certain regions before broader release, meaning settings options may appear or disappear
If you're looking for a specific toggle and can't find it, checking that your app is updated to the latest version is usually the first step.
Notification Behavior Across Devices
If you're logged into Facebook on multiple devices — a phone, a tablet, and a browser — each device's push notification settings operate somewhat independently at the OS level, while in-app category settings sync across your account. That means you might silence push alerts on your iPhone but still get them on your iPad if you haven't adjusted settings there separately.
How much of this matters to you depends heavily on how many devices you use, which notification types bother you most, and whether you want a partial reduction or a complete switch-off. Those details are specific to your own setup — and the right combination of settings is going to look different from one person to the next.