How to delete Facebook notifications from your phone and computer

You can delete individual notifications by opening the notification itself and dismissing it, but that only removes what you see right now — Facebook will keep sending new ones. To actually stop notifications, you need to change your notification settings, which controls what Facebook is allowed to alert you about in the first place.

On your phone, open Facebook, tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines), scroll down to Settings & Privacy, then Settings. Tap Notifications. You'll see a list of notification types — comments, likes, friend requests, messages, and others. Tap each one and choose whether to turn it off completely, get alerts only when you're not using the app, or keep them on. On a computer, go to the down arrow in the top right, click Settings & Privacy, then Settings, then Notifications in the left menu. The options work the same way.

Key Takeaways

  • Deleting a single notification only removes it from your screen — to stop future notifications, you must change your notification settings in Facebook's menu.
  • You can turn off notifications by type: comments, likes, messages, friend requests, and others each have their own on/off switch.
  • Facebook lets you choose between no notifications, alerts only when you're not using the app, or notifications at all times.
  • Phone and computer settings are separate, so you may need to adjust both if you use Facebook on multiple devices.
  • Turning off notifications does not delete your account or change what posts appear in your feed — it only controls what alerts you receive.

Turning off notifications by type on your phone

Facebook groups notifications into categories so you can keep some and silence others. Open the app, tap the menu, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications, and you'll see options like Comments, Likes, Friend Requests, Messages, and Event Invitations. Each one has three choices: All, While Using App Only, or Off.

Choose All if you want alerts even when you're not looking at Facebook. Choose While Using App Only if you want to see notifications only when the app is open. Choose Off to stop that type of notification entirely. You can set each category differently — for example, turn off likes but keep messages on. After you change a setting, Facebook saves it right away, so you don't need to confirm or restart the app.

Turning off notifications by type on your computer

The computer version works the same way but the menu is in a different place. Click the down arrow in the top right corner of Facebook, then Settings & Privacy, then Settings. On the left side, click Notifications. You'll see the same categories as on your phone: Comments, Likes, Messages, Friend Requests, and others.

Click each one and choose your preference. On a computer, your options are usually On, Off, or sometimes a middle ground like "only from friends" or "only from pages you follow." The exact options vary depending on the notification type. Once you click your choice, it takes effect when ready.

Stopping notifications from specific people or pages

If you want to keep notifications on overall but silence one person or one page, you don't have to turn off the whole category. Find the person or page, click the three dots next to their name or in their profile, and look for an option like "Turn off notifications from this person" or "Mute notifications." This stops alerts from that specific source without affecting notifications from anyone else.

You can also mute a conversation in Messenger. Open the chat, press and hold the conversation (on phone) or right-click it (on computer), and choose Mute. The conversation stays in your inbox but won't send you alerts. You can unmute it the same way whenever you want to get notifications again.

Managing notification sounds and badges

Even if you keep notifications on, you can control how they alert you. On your phone, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications and look for options about sound, vibration, or badges (the red number that appears on the Facebook app icon). You can turn off the sound so notifications arrive silently, turn off vibration, or turn off the badge so you don't see a number on the app.

On a computer, Facebook notifications usually appear as a small popup in the corner of your screen. You can't customize the sound on the Facebook website itself, but you can control notifications through your computer's settings. On Windows, go to Settings > System > Notifications & Actions and find Facebook in the list. On Mac, go to System Preferences > Notifications and find Facebook. From there you can turn off sounds, banners, or badges for the whole app.

What happens when you turn off notifications

Turning off notifications does not delete anything, hide your account, or change what posts appear in your feed. It only stops the alerts — the red number on the app icon, the sounds, the popups, and the notifications in your notification center. You can still see everything that happened by opening Facebook and looking at your notifications manually.

If you turn off notifications and then change your mind, you can turn them back on the same way. Go back to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications and switch them back to All or While Using App Only. There's no waiting period or confirmation — the change happens right away.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I turn off notifications, will my friends know?

No. Turning off notifications is a setting only you can see. Your friends won't know whether you have notifications on or off, and it doesn't change what posts you see or whether you can message them.

Can I turn off notifications for just one type of post, like birthday reminders?

Facebook doesn't have a setting specifically for birthdays, but you can mute notifications from the Birthday app or from the person whose birthday it is. Find their profile, click the three dots, and choose to turn off notifications from them.

Why do I still see notifications after I turned them off?

Check that you changed the setting on the right device. If you use Facebook on both your phone and computer, you need to turn off notifications on each one separately — changing your phone settings doesn't affect your computer. Also make sure you're in the right notification category; you may have turned off one type but left another on.

Can I schedule notifications to turn off at certain times?

Facebook doesn't have a built-in scheduling feature, but your phone does. On iPhone, go to Settings > Focus and create a Focus mode that silences Facebook during certain hours. On Android, go to Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb and set a schedule. This silences all notifications from all apps during those times.