How to Turn Notifications Off on AirPods (And What That Actually Controls)

If your AirPods keep reading out messages, announcing calls, or chiming with every alert, you're not imagining things — Apple has built several notification-related features directly into how AirPods work. But "turning notifications off on AirPods" isn't a single switch. It's a set of overlapping settings across your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and which ones apply to you depends on your setup.

Here's a clear breakdown of what's actually happening and where to find each control.

What "AirPods Notifications" Actually Means

Your AirPods don't generate notifications on their own. They're an audio output device — so when people talk about notifications on AirPods, they typically mean one or more of these things:

• Siri reading messages aloud when AirPods are in your ears (Announce Messages/Announce Notifications)
• Siri announcing incoming calls through your AirPods
• Audio alerts and chimes from apps playing through the earbuds
• AirPods status tones, like the connection chime or low battery sound

Each of these has a different home in your settings, and controlling one doesn't automatically control the others.

Announce Notifications: The Main Culprit 🔔

The feature most people want to disable is Announce Notifications (previously called Announce Messages with Siri). When enabled, Siri automatically reads out your incoming notifications — including messages, emails, and app alerts — when your AirPods are connected and your iPhone is locked.

To turn it off on iPhone or iPad:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Notifications
3. Tap Announce Notifications
4. Toggle Announce Notifications off at the top

You can also leave the main toggle on and selectively disable it app by app — so Siri might read Messages but stay quiet for Gmail, for example. This is controlled in the same menu by tapping individual apps listed under "Announce Notifications."

There's also a per-device option in AirPods settings:

1. Go to Settings → Bluetooth
2. Tap the ⓘ icon next to your AirPods
3. Look for Announce Notifications — you can turn it off here specifically for those AirPods without changing your global notification settings

This distinction matters: the Bluetooth panel option affects only that pair of AirPods, while the Notifications panel setting applies system-wide.

Announce Calls: A Separate Setting

If Siri is announcing who's calling through your AirPods, that's controlled independently from Announce Notifications.

To adjust it:

1. Go to Settings → Phone (or FaceTime for video calls)
2. Tap Announce Calls
3. Choose Never to stop the behavior completely, or limit it to Headphones Only, Headphones & Car, or Always

Setting it to Never silences the call announcement across all situations. Choosing Headphones Only keeps it limited to when something is in your ears — which is what most people actually want if they decide to keep the feature.

App-Level Notification Audio

Even with Announce Notifications disabled, apps can still push audio alerts through whatever output your phone is currently using — including your AirPods. These are standard notification sounds, not Siri-read announcements.

To control these:

1. Go to Settings → Notifications
2. Select the specific app
3. Toggle Sounds off to prevent that app's alerts from making noise at all

This silences the sound regardless of what's playing through your AirPods. If your goal is to stop a particular app from interrupting you during audio, this is the more surgical fix.

AirPods Connection and Status Tones

Some users want to disable the chime that plays when AirPods connect, disconnect, or hit a low battery threshold. These are handled differently depending on your device and AirPods model.

On Mac, you can sometimes manage this through System Settings → Sound, though options vary. On iOS, there isn't a native toggle to fully silence AirPods status tones — they're baked into the firmware behavior. Focus modes and Do Not Disturb can suppress some interruptions, but they don't eliminate the hardware-level connection sounds.

Focus Modes and Do Not Disturb

For a broader approach, Focus modes on iOS (including Do Not Disturb) can filter which apps and contacts are allowed to send notifications at all — which means fewer notifications reach your AirPods in the first place.

Setting up a Focus:

1. Go to Settings → Focus
2. Choose an existing Focus (like Do Not Disturb) or create a custom one
3. Configure which apps and people are allowed through

When a Focus is active and Announce Notifications is on, only allowed notifications will be read aloud. This works well for people who want quiet during specific activities without permanently changing all their notification settings. 🎧

The Variables That Change What You Need to Do

The right path depends on several factors:

Someone using AirPods Pro on a recent iPhone has more granular control than someone on an older AirPods model paired to a Mac. And someone who wants silence only during workouts has different needs than someone who wants notifications off permanently.

The controls exist at every level — system-wide, per-app, per-device, and per-session through Focus modes — which means the combination that works for you depends on exactly how and where you're using your AirPods, and which interruptions you actually want to stop.