Where to find notification settings on your iPhone

Open Settings on your home screen, then tap Notifications. You will see a list of every app installed on your phone that sends notifications. From here you can turn notifications off entirely for any app, or adjust what kind of notifications that app is allowed to send.

The Notifications menu is where you control almost everything about how your phone alerts you. You can silence specific apps while keeping notifications on for others, choose whether notifications appear as badges, sounds, or banners, and decide whether they show on your lock screen.

Key Takeaways

  • Go to Settings > Notifications to control which apps can send you alerts and how they appear.
  • Turn off notifications for individual apps by scrolling to that app and toggling off Allow Notifications.
  • Use Focus modes to silence notifications from most apps while keeping calls and messages from important contacts.
  • Turn on Do Not Disturb to mute all sounds and vibrations while still letting calls and texts through from your favorites.
  • Schedule quiet hours by setting a Focus mode to turn on automatically at specific times each day.

Turning off notifications for a single app

Open Settings, tap Notifications, then scroll down and find the app you want to silence. Tap the app name, then toggle off Allow Notifications. That app will no longer send you any alerts, badges, or sounds.

If you want to keep some notifications from that app but silence others, keep Allow Notifications turned on and adjust the options below it instead. You can turn off Sounds to stop the alert noise, turn off Badges to hide the red number on the app icon, or change Notification Style from Banner to None so alerts do not appear on your screen at all.

Using Do Not Disturb to silence everything at once

Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center, then press and hold the sound icon (or the bell with a line through it). Tap Do Not Disturb to turn it on. Your phone will stop making sounds and vibrations for all notifications, though calls and texts from people in your Favorites list will still come through.

Do Not Disturb is the fastest way to silence your phone when you need quiet immediately — during a meeting, movie, or sleep. You can set it to turn on automatically at a specific time each night by going to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and tapping Set Up Focus. Choose the times you want it active, and your phone will switch to silent mode on its own.

Setting up Focus modes for custom quiet hours

Focus modes let you create different notification profiles for different situations. Go to Settings > Focus, tap the + button, and choose a preset like Work, Sleep, or Personal, or create a custom one. Select which apps and contacts are allowed to notify you, then set the times you want that Focus to turn on automatically.

For example, you could create a Work Focus that silences everything except calls from your boss and messages from your team, and set it to turn on every weekday at 9 a.m. Your Sleep Focus could allow only calls from family while silencing all other notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. When a Focus is active, a small icon appears at the top of your screen so you know notifications are limited.

Controlling how notifications appear on your lock screen

Even when you allow notifications from an app, you can hide them from your lock screen so they do not show when your phone is locked. Go to Settings > Notifications, find the app, and scroll down to Lock Screen. Toggle it off to keep that app's notifications hidden until you unlock your phone.

This is useful for apps like email or social media that send frequent alerts you do not need to see immediately. The notifications will still arrive and you can see them when you open the app, but they will not clutter your lock screen or alert you with a sound or vibration.

Silencing notifications from specific contacts

For Messages and FaceTime, you can mute notifications from individual people without turning off notifications entirely. Open the Messages app, find the conversation you want to mute, swipe left on it, tap the three dots, then tap Mute. You can choose to mute that person for one hour, until the next morning, or indefinitely.

In FaceTime, open the app, find the contact, swipe left on their name, tap the three dots, and select Mute Notifications. You will still receive calls and messages from that person, but you will not hear a sound or see a notification banner when they contact you.

Turning off badge notifications

Badge notifications are the red circles with numbers that appear on app icons to show you have unread messages or alerts. Go to Settings > Notifications, find the app, and toggle off Badges. The red number will disappear from that app's icon, though you will still get sounds and banners if those are turned on.

Turning off badges is helpful if you find the red numbers stressful or distracting, especially for apps like email where the count can grow very large. You can turn off badges for some apps while keeping them for others — for example, keep badges on for Messages but turn them off for email.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will people know I muted their notifications?

No. Muting notifications does not send any signal to the other person. They will not know you have silenced their calls, texts, or messages. You will still receive everything they send — you just will not be alerted by a sound or banner.

Can I mute notifications during specific hours without using Focus?

Do Not Disturb is the simplest option for automatic quiet hours. Go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb, tap Set Up Focus, and choose the times you want it active. Your phone will switch to silent mode automatically at those times without needing to set up a full Focus profile.

What is the difference between turning off notifications and muting them?

Turning off notifications in Settings > Notifications stops an app from sending alerts entirely. Muting a conversation in Messages or using Do Not Disturb silences the sound and vibration but the notifications still arrive — you just will not be alerted. Choose turning off based on what you want to see later; choose muting for temporary quiet.

If I turn off notifications for an app, will I still see messages when I open it?

Yes. Turning off notifications only stops the alerts and badges. When you open the app, you will see all your messages and activity normally. The app just will not notify you that something new arrived.

Can I have different notification settings for work and personal time?

Yes, that is what Focus modes are for. Create a Work Focus that allows only work contacts and apps, and a Personal Focus for everything else. Set each one to turn on automatically at the times you need it, and your phone will switch between them on its own.