How to Turn Off Notifications on Facebook: A Complete Guide

Facebook notifications can pile up fast — likes, comments, friend requests, event reminders, marketplace messages, and more. If your phone is buzzing every few minutes or your email inbox is filling with Facebook alerts, you have more control over this than you might think. Here's exactly how the notification system works and what you can adjust.

Understanding Facebook's Two Notification Layers

Before diving into settings, it helps to know that Facebook notifications operate on two separate levels:

1. In-app notifications — the alerts you see inside Facebook itself (the bell icon)
2. Push notifications — the pop-ups that appear on your phone's lock screen or home screen, sent from your device's OS

To fully silence Facebook, you often need to adjust both layers. Changing one won't necessarily affect the other.

How to Turn Off Facebook Notifications on Mobile (iOS and Android)

Within the Facebook App

The Facebook app gives you granular control over which types of notifications you receive.

1. Open the Facebook app and tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines, sometimes called the hamburger menu)
2. Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy, then Settings
3. Scroll to the Notifications section and tap Notification Settings
4. You'll see a list of notification categories — Comments, Tags, Reminders, Friend Requests, Marketplace, Groups, Pages, and more
5. Tap any category to expand it and toggle individual notification types on or off

This is where most of the fine-tuning happens. You're not stuck with all-or-nothing — Facebook lets you keep, say, direct message alerts while turning off every Group notification.

At the Device Level (iOS)

If you want to cut off push notifications entirely without going into Facebook:

1. Open your iPhone's Settings app
2. Scroll down and tap Facebook
3. Tap Notifications
4. Toggle Allow Notifications off

This blocks all push alerts from Facebook at the OS level, regardless of what the app itself is set to do.

At the Device Level (Android)

Android handles this slightly differently depending on your phone manufacturer and Android version, but the general path is:

1. Open Settings on your device
2. Go to Apps (sometimes called Applications or App Manager)
3. Find and tap Facebook
4. Tap Notifications
5. Toggle off Show Notifications or disable specific notification channels

Android 8.0 and later introduced notification channels, which means you can silence specific categories of Facebook alerts (like Marketplace or Events) right from your phone's system settings, without touching the app.

How to Turn Off Facebook Notifications on Desktop

In a Web Browser

1. Log into Facebook and click the bell icon (notifications) in the top navigation bar
2. Click the three-dot menu at the top of the notification panel
3. Select Notification Settings
4. From here, adjust notifications by type — or scroll down to find How You Get Notifications to manage email and SMS alerts separately

Email Notifications

Facebook sends a surprising number of emails by default. To stop them:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings
2. Under Notifications, tap or click Email
3. Toggle off the categories you no longer want delivered to your inbox

You can also unsubscribe directly from any Facebook notification email using the unsubscribe link at the bottom — though doing it inside the app gives you more control over exactly which emails stop.

📋 Notification Types You Can Control

Muting vs. Turning Off: A Useful Middle Ground

If you don't want to disable notifications permanently, Facebook offers a Snooze option for specific notification types, letting you pause alerts for a set period. This is useful if you're going on holiday or just need a break from a particularly active group.

On mobile, you can also use your phone's Focus or Do Not Disturb mode to silence Facebook (along with other apps) during certain hours without changing any in-app settings at all.

What Affects How Notifications Behave

A few variables change the experience significantly:

• iOS vs. Android: Android's channel-based system gives you more granular device-level control; iOS is more binary (on or off per app)
• App version: Facebook updates its interface regularly — menu paths may shift slightly between versions, though the core settings remain in the same general area
• Account activity: The more Pages, Groups, and Marketplace listings you're active in, the more notification categories will appear in your settings
• Whether you use Messenger separately: If you have the Messenger app installed, its notifications are managed independently — turning off Facebook notifications won't silence Messenger

🔔 The Settings That Are Easy to Miss

Two commonly overlooked sources of Facebook alerts:

• "On Facebook" vs. push notifications — these are toggled separately. You might turn off push alerts but still see a red badge count inside the app
• Notification dots on the app icon — on iOS, this is controlled under Settings > Facebook > Notifications > Badges, not inside Facebook itself

Most people find that getting full quiet from Facebook requires adjustments in at least two places — and sometimes three, if email notifications are in the mix.

How much you'll want to pare back depends on how you actually use Facebook — whether it's a daily communication tool, an occasional browse, or something you're actively trying to step back from. That balance is specific to your habits and what you actually want to stay informed about. 🔕