Where to find notification settings on your phone

Android keeps notification controls in two places: inside individual apps, and in your phone's main Settings. The fastest way to stop a specific app from notifying you is to go to Settings > Apps (or Application Manager on older phones) > find the app name > Notifications. Toggle the switch to off. This blocks all alerts from that app without uninstalling it.

If you want to silence notifications from everything at once, or adjust how they appear on your lock screen, you'll use the main notification settings instead. The exact path varies slightly by phone brand — Samsung, Google Pixel, and other Android phones organize these menus differently — but the principle is the same.

Key Takeaways

  • You can turn off notifications from a single app by going to Settings > Apps, finding the app, and toggling Notifications off.
  • Do Not Disturb mode silences all notifications except calls and messages from your contacts, and you can schedule it to turn on automatically at certain times.
  • Lock screen notifications can be hidden, shown as dots only, or displayed in full — change this in Settings > Notifications > Lock screen.
  • Notification badges (the red numbers on app icons) can be turned off separately from the notifications themselves.

Turning off notifications for one app at a time

Open Settings and tap Apps. Scroll down and find the app you want to silence. Tap it, then look for Notifications — it's usually near the top of the app's settings page. You'll see a toggle switch; tap it to turn notifications off. The app will continue to work normally, but it won't send you any alerts.

Some apps have more detailed notification controls. After you tap the app name, you might see options like Allow notifications, Notification sounds, or Vibration. You can turn off the main toggle to block everything, or leave notifications on but disable just the sound or vibration. This is useful if you want to see a notification when you unlock your phone, but don't want it waking you up at night.

On Samsung phones, the path is Settings > Apps > Permissions > Notifications, then find the app and toggle it off. On Google Pixel phones, it's Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps, then find the app and tap Notifications.

Using Do Not Disturb to silence everything

Do Not Disturb mode stops all notifications from reaching you, with one exception: calls and texts from people in your contacts still come through. This is useful when you're sleeping, in a meeting, or just need uninterrupted time. To turn it on, swipe down from the top of your screen twice to open the full quick settings panel, then tap Do Not Disturb.

You can also schedule Do Not Disturb to turn on automatically. Go to Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb (or Sound and vibration on some phones) and look for Scheduled or Turn on as scheduled. Set a start time and end time — for example, 10 PM to 7 AM — and your phone will silence notifications during those hours every day. You can still manually turn Do Not Disturb on or off anytime by using the quick settings panel.

If you want certain people to reach you even during Do Not Disturb, tap Allow calls and messages from and choose Contacts, Favorites, or None. This way, your boss or family can still call you in an emergency, but random notifications won't interrupt you.

Controlling how notifications look on your lock screen

You can hide notifications from your lock screen entirely, show them as dots only, or display them in full. Go to Settings > Notifications and look for Lock screen or On lock screen. You'll see three options: Show all notification content (displays the full message), Hide sensitive content (shows the app name but not the message), or Don't show notifications (shows only a dot).

This is different from turning notifications off completely. If you choose Don't show notifications, the notification still exists — you'll see a dot on the lock screen and a number badge on the app icon — but the message itself stays hidden until you unlock your phone. This is useful if you want to see that something arrived, but don't want the content visible to someone looking at your phone.

Turning off notification badges and dots

The red number badges that appear on app icons (like the "5" on your Messages app) are separate from notifications themselves. You can turn these off without silencing the actual alerts. Go to Settings > Apps, find the app, and look for Badge or App icon badge. Toggle it off.

On Samsung phones, this setting is in Settings > Notifications > App icon badges. You can turn badges off for all apps at once, or go into individual app settings to disable them selectively. Some people prefer this because it removes the visual clutter without losing the notifications themselves.

Stopping notifications from specific contacts

If one person's messages or calls are creating too many notifications, you can silence them without blocking them entirely. Open your Messages or Phone app, find the contact, and look for a settings icon (usually three dots or a gear). Tap it and choose Mute notifications or Silence. Messages from that person will still arrive, but you won't get an alert.

For email, open Gmail and find the sender's address in your inbox. Tap and hold their message, then tap the three-dot menu and choose Mute. All future emails from that sender will skip your inbox and go straight to a label, so you won't see notifications.

Resetting notifications if you change your mind

If you've turned off notifications and want to turn them back on, follow the same steps: go to Settings > Apps, find the app, tap Notifications, and toggle the switch back on. You can also adjust individual notification settings — like sound or vibration — at the same time.

For Do Not Disturb, swipe down twice from the top and tap the toggle to turn it off immediately. If you had it scheduled, it will turn back on at the scheduled time unless you disable the schedule in Settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the app know I turned off its notifications?

No. The app continues to run normally and has no way to detect that you've silenced its notifications. You'll just stop seeing alerts. The app itself won't be affected.

Can I turn off notifications for just one type of alert from an app?

Yes. After you tap the app in Settings > Apps > Notifications, you'll often see options for Sound, Vibration, and Visual indicator. You can turn off the sound but keep vibration, or turn off both but keep the notification badge. It depends on what the app offers.

What's the difference between muting a contact and turning off notifications from an app?

Muting a contact silences alerts from just that one person, while turning off app notifications stops all alerts from that app. If you mute a contact in Messages, you'll still get notifications from other people texting you.

If I turn on Do Not Disturb, will alarms still go off?

Yes. Do Not Disturb silences notifications and calls, but alarms, timers, and reminders you've set will still sound. This is intentional — you don't want to sleep through an alarm.

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

Android doesn't have a built-in work profile on all phones, but you can use Do Not Disturb with a schedule to silence everything during work hours, then turn it off afterward. For more control, some phones offer a Work profile or Separate work space feature — check your Settings > Accounts to see if yours does.