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 can send you messages. Each app name is a button you can tap to control what that app is allowed to do.
The fastest way to silence one notification right now is to swipe left on the notification itself when it appears on your lock screen or in your notification center. A trash icon appears — tap it to delete that single alert. But if you want to stop an app from sending notifications altogether, or change how they arrive, you need to go into Settings.
Key Takeaways
- Turn off notifications for a single app by opening Settings, tapping Notifications, finding the app name, and toggling off Allow Notifications.
- You can keep notifications but change how they arrive — silent only, banner only, or lock screen only — by adjusting the same app's settings.
- Focus modes let you silence notifications from everyone except specific people or apps during work, sleep, or driving without turning off notifications permanently.
- Scheduled Summary groups notifications from multiple apps into one digest at a time you choose, reducing interruptions throughout the day.
- Turning off notifications for an app does not delete the app or prevent it from working — it only stops the alerts.
Turning off notifications for a single app
In Settings > Notifications, find the app you want to silence and tap its name. At the top of that app's settings page, you will see a toggle labeled Allow Notifications. Tap it to turn it off. The toggle will turn gray, and that app will no longer send you any alerts.
You can turn notifications back on for that app at any time by returning to the same screen and toggling Allow Notifications back on. Turning off notifications does not uninstall the app, change your account settings, or prevent the app from working — it only stops the alerts from reaching you.
Changing how notifications arrive without turning them off
If you want to keep notifications from an app but change the way they appear, tap the app name in Settings > Notifications and look for Notification Style. You have three choices: Banners (a message slides down from the top and disappears), Alerts (a message stays on screen until you dismiss it), or Lock Screen Only (the notification appears only on your lock screen, not while you are using your phone).
Below that, you can toggle Sounds on or off to control whether the app makes a noise when it sends an alert. You can also toggle Badges on or off — badges are the red circles with numbers that appear on the app icon. Turning off badges removes the visual reminder that something is waiting in that app, but the notification itself still arrives.
Using Focus modes to silence notifications during specific times
A Focus is a mode that silences notifications from most apps while allowing alerts from people or apps you choose. Go to Settings > Focus and tap the + button to create a new Focus. You can name it Work, Sleep, Driving, or anything else. When you turn on that Focus, notifications from apps you have not whitelisted will be silent.
For each Focus, you can decide which people are allowed to reach you (by phone call or message) and which apps can still send alerts. You can also set a schedule — for example, Sleep Focus can turn on automatically every night at 10 p.m. and turn off at 7 a.m. This way, notifications stay on for the apps you care about, but they only reach you when you want them to.
Grouping notifications into a daily summary
Instead of receiving notifications throughout the day, you can have iPhone collect them and show you one digest at a specific time. In Settings > Notifications, scroll to the bottom and toggle on Scheduled Summary. Tap the time below it to choose when you want to see the summary — many people choose early morning or lunch time.
Once you turn on Scheduled Summary, you can tap Customize to choose which apps should be included in the summary and which should still send you alerts when ready. Apps you add to the summary will not notify you in real time, but their alerts will appear in the digest at your chosen time. This is useful for news apps, social media, and email — things you want to read but do not need to interrupt you every few minutes.
Turning off notifications for all apps at once
If you want to silence your entire phone temporarily, use Do Not Disturb. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center, then tap the moon icon labeled Do Not Disturb. All notifications will be silent until you turn it off again. You can also set a schedule for Do Not Disturb in Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb, so it turns on and off automatically.
Do Not Disturb is different from turning off notifications in Settings — it is a temporary pause, not a permanent change. When you turn off Do Not Disturb, notifications will resume as normal. If you want to permanently silence an app, you still need to go to Settings > Notifications and toggle off Allow Notifications for that specific app.
What happens to notifications you turn off
When you turn off notifications for an app, the alerts straightforward do not reach you. They do not pile up somewhere waiting to be read later. If someone sends you a message in an app with notifications turned off, you will not see a notification, but the message itself will still be in the app when you open it manually.
Some apps, like Messages and Phone, may still show a badge (the red number circle) on their icon even if notifications are off, so you can see at a glance that something is waiting. You can turn off badges separately in each app's notification settings if you want to hide that reminder too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I turn off notifications for just one person or contact?
Not directly through notifications settings. Instead, open the Messages app, swipe left on the conversation with that person, tap the three dots, and choose Hide Alerts. The conversation will still arrive, but it will not make a sound or show a banner. You can do the same in other apps like Mail by swiping left on a sender's name.
Will turning off notifications prevent me from getting calls or texts?
No. Turning off notifications for the Messages or Phone app will silence alerts, but calls and texts will still arrive in those apps. You will just not see a notification when they come in. If you want to block calls or texts entirely, you need to block the contact, not turn off notifications.
How do I turn notifications back on after I turned them off?
Go to Settings > Notifications, find the app name, and tap it. Toggle Allow Notifications back on. The toggle will turn green, and that app will resume sending you alerts using whatever notification style you had set before.
What is the difference between turning off notifications and deleting an app?
Turning off notifications silences alerts but leaves the app on your phone and fully functional. Deleting an app removes it entirely. You can turn notifications back on anytime, but deleted apps must be reinstalled from the App Store.
Can I schedule notifications to turn off at night automatically?
Yes, using Focus modes. Go to Settings > Focus, create or edit a Focus like Sleep, and set a schedule for when it should turn on and off. During that time, notifications will be silent unless they come from people or apps you have whitelisted.