The fastest way to silence texts without turning off your phone
Open Settings, tap Notifications, scroll to Messages, and toggle off "Sounds". Your texts will still arrive and show a badge on the app icon, but your phone will not make a sound or vibration when they come in. If you want to silence only certain people's texts — your boss, a group chat, a family member — you can do that too, but it takes a separate step for each contact or conversation.
The trade-off is straightforward: you stop hearing every ping, but you have to remember to check your phone. Some people find this worth it. Others find they miss urgent messages because they forget to look. The sections below show you the different ways to silence texts, so you can pick the one that matches how you actually use your phone.
Key Takeaways
- Turning off notification sounds in Settings silences all text messages at once, but you will still see badges and previews on your lock screen.
- You can silence texts from one person or one group chat by opening that conversation, tapping the contact name or group name at the top, and toggling off notifications for just that thread.
- Focus modes let you silence texts from everyone except people you mark as favorites, which is useful if you want quiet time but need to stay reachable for emergencies.
- Turning off vibration separately from sound gives you a silent phone that does not buzz in your pocket, which some people prefer to complete silence.
- Do Not Disturb silences everything but lets calls and texts from your favorites through, though it requires you to set up those contacts first.
Silencing all text notifications at once
Go to Settings on your home screen. Tap Notifications. Scroll down until you see Messages and tap it. You will see a toggle next to "Sounds" — tap it to turn it off. Your phone will no longer make a sound when a text arrives.
This silences the notification sound but leaves everything else intact. You will still see a red badge with a number on the Messages app icon. You will still see text previews on your lock screen. You will still get a vibration if you have vibration turned on. If you want to turn off vibration too, stay in the Messages notification settings and toggle off "Vibration".
The downside: you have to remember to check your phone. If you are used to hearing a sound every time a text comes in, you may miss messages for hours without realizing it. This works best if you check your phone regularly anyway, or if you work in a place where sounds are disruptive and you can afford to be a little slower to respond.
Silencing texts from one person or one group chat
Open the Messages app. Find the conversation you want to silence — it could be a single person or a group chat. Press and hold on that conversation until a menu appears. Tap "Hide Alerts" or "Mute" (the exact wording depends on your iOS version). That conversation will now be silent, but other texts will still make noise.
If you want more control, open the conversation itself by tapping on it. Tap the contact name or group name at the very top of the screen. Scroll down and tap "Hide Alerts" or look for notification settings. You can also tap "Info" and then toggle off notifications from there.
This is useful for group chats that ping constantly, or for people you want to hear from but not right now. The conversation still shows up in your Messages list, and you can still see new messages when you open the app — they just will not interrupt you with a sound or vibration.
Using Focus modes to silence texts except from favorites
Focus modes let you create a custom state where your phone silences most notifications but allows through texts and calls from people you choose. Open Settings, tap Focus, and tap the plus sign to create a new Focus. Name it something like "Work" or "Sleep" or "Quiet Time".
Tap "Customize Notifications" and choose which apps can send notifications while this Focus is on. For Messages, you can allow notifications only from your favorites — people you have starred in your contacts. Then set a schedule so the Focus turns on automatically at certain times, or turn it on manually when you need quiet.
The advantage is that you get silence without cutting yourself off completely. If your partner, parent, or boss texts you, it will still come through. Everyone else is silent. The disadvantage is that it requires setup: you have to mark people as favorites first, and you have to remember to turn the Focus on (unless you automate it with a schedule).
Turning off vibration separately from sound
Some people want their phone silent but do not want it buzzing in their pocket either. Go to Settings, tap Notifications, tap Messages, and toggle off "Vibration". Now texts will arrive silently with no sound and no buzz.
You can also control vibration separately from sound for the entire phone. Go to Settings, tap Sounds & Haptics, and toggle off "Vibration". This affects all notifications, not just texts. Some iPhones also have a physical mute switch on the side of the phone — flipping it to silent mode turns off both sounds and vibrations for everything except alarms.
The trade-off: if you silence both sound and vibration, you will only know a text arrived if you look at your phone or see the badge on the app icon. This is the most disruptive-free option, but it also means you might miss time-sensitive messages.
Using Do Not Disturb to silence texts from most people
Do Not Disturb is a broader tool than Focus modes, but it works similarly. Open Settings, tap Do Not Disturb, and toggle it on. By default, it silences everything. To allow calls and texts from specific people, tap "Allow Calls From" and "Allow Messages From" and choose your favorites.
You can set Do Not Disturb to turn on automatically at certain times — for example, every night at 10 p.m. or every weekday during work hours. You can also turn it on manually by swiping down from the top right of your screen, finding the Do Not Disturb icon, and tapping it.
The difference between Do Not Disturb and Focus modes is subtle. Do Not Disturb is simpler and older; Focus modes are newer and more flexible. Both let you silence most notifications while keeping a few people reachable. If you are not sure which to use, start with Focus — it gives you more options.
What happens to texts when notifications are silenced
Silencing notifications does not delete texts or hide them from you. The messages still arrive on your phone. You will still see a red badge with a number on the Messages app icon, telling you how many unread texts you have. You will still see text previews on your lock screen (unless you turn those off separately). You will still be able to read the full conversation when you open the Messages app.
The only thing that stops is the sound and vibration. This is important to understand because it means you are not missing texts — you are just not being interrupted by them. If you need to know about a text when ready, you still have to check your phone. If you can wait until you naturally look at your phone, silencing notifications works well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I silence texts from one person but not others?
Yes. Open that person's conversation in Messages, tap their name at the top, and toggle off notifications. Or press and hold their conversation in the Messages list and tap "Hide Alerts". Other conversations will still make noise.
Will the person know I silenced their texts?
No. Silencing notifications is invisible to the other person. They cannot see whether you have notifications on or off. Your read receipts (if you have them on) will still show them when you read their message, but that is separate from notification sounds.
How do I turn notifications back on?
Go back to Settings, tap Notifications, tap Messages, and toggle "Sounds" back on. Or open a silenced conversation, tap the contact name at the top, and toggle notifications back on for just that person.
What is the difference between Do Not Disturb and Focus modes?
Do Not Disturb is simpler and silences everything except calls and texts from your favorites. Focus modes are newer and let you customize which apps can notify you, not just calls and texts. Both can turn on automatically at certain times.
If I silence all notifications, will I still see text previews on my lock screen?
Yes, unless you turn off lock screen notifications separately. Go to Settings, tap Notifications, tap Messages, and toggle off "Show on Lock Screen" if you want to hide previews completely.