The fastest way to silence everything at once
Go to Settings > Notifications, then scroll to the bottom and tap Siri Suggestions. Turn off the toggle next to Allow Notifications. That stops app suggestions from appearing. Then go back and tap each app listed above it — starting with the ones you use most — and turn off Allow Notifications for each one.
This takes about five minutes if you have many apps installed. You are not deleting anything or losing data. The apps still work normally. Notifications straightforward will not reach your lock screen, home screen, or notification center.
If you want notifications from some apps but not others, you can stop here and skip the apps you trust. If you want nothing at all, keep going through the full list.
Key Takeaways
- The Settings > Notifications menu lets you turn off notifications per app, or turn them all off at once by disabling each app individually.
- Turning off notifications does not delete messages, emails, or data — it only stops the alerts from appearing on your screen.
- Do Not Disturb silences notifications temporarily without changing your settings, useful if you want to turn them back on later the same day.
- Focus modes let you create custom rules — for example, allowing calls from family but silencing everything else during work hours.
- Some apps like Messages and Mail have their own notification settings inside the app itself, separate from the iPhone settings.
Turning off notifications one app at a time
Open Settings and tap Notifications. You will see a list of every app that has ever sent you a notification, organized alphabetically. Tap the first app you want to silence.
Look for the toggle labeled Allow Notifications. If it is green, notifications are on. Tap it once to turn it gray — that means notifications are off. The app will no longer send you alerts, badges (the red circles with numbers), or sounds.
Go back to the Notifications list and repeat for the next app. You can do this in any order. Most people start with the apps that bother them most — social media, games, news apps — and leave the ones they actually want to hear from, like Messages or Calendar, turned on.
Using Do Not Disturb for temporary silence
If you want to silence notifications right now but do not want to change your settings permanently, use Do Not Disturb. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center, then tap the moon icon. Notifications will stop when ready.
You can set how long Do Not Disturb stays on. Tap and hold the moon icon, then choose 1 Hour, Until This Evening, Until Tomorrow Morning, or Until I Leave This Location. When the time ends, notifications turn back on automatically.
Do Not Disturb is faster than changing settings if you only want a break for a few hours. It does not change which apps can notify you — it just pauses all of them temporarily.
Creating Focus modes for different times of day
Focus modes let you set different notification rules for different situations. For example, you can allow calls from family during Work Focus but silence everything else. Open Settings > Focus, then tap the + button in the top-right corner.
Choose a preset like Work, Sleep, Fitness, or Driving, or tap Custom to create your own. Name it and choose which apps can send notifications. You can allow calls from specific people even when notifications are off.
Once you set up a Focus, you can turn it on manually from Control Center, or set it to turn on automatically at certain times or locations. For example, Sleep Focus can turn on every night at 10 p.m. and turn off at 7 a.m.
Turning off badges and sounds separately
You might want to keep notifications but remove the red badge numbers or the sound. Open Settings > Notifications, tap an app, and look for Badge App Icon and Sounds. You can turn each one off independently while keeping notifications on.
This is useful for apps like Email, where you want to know a message arrived but do not want a sound interrupting you. You can check the app when you have time and see the badge number telling you how many unread messages are waiting.
Checking notification settings inside individual apps
Some apps have their own notification controls that override the iPhone settings. Open the app itself and look for Settings or Preferences, usually found by tapping a gear icon or your profile picture. Search for a section called Notifications or Alerts.
Apps like Messages, Mail, and Instagram often have extra options here — for example, you might be able to turn off notifications for group chats but keep them for direct messages. Changing these settings does not affect the main iPhone notification settings, so you may need to adjust both places to get the behavior you want.
What happens when you turn off notifications
When you disable notifications for an app, nothing is deleted or lost. Messages still arrive, emails still come in, and your data is not affected. The app straightforward stops alerting you. If you open the app manually, you will see everything that arrived while notifications were off.
You can turn notifications back on anytime by going back to Settings > Notifications, tapping the app, and turning Allow Notifications back on. There is no penalty for changing your mind, and you can adjust these settings as often as you want.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I miss important calls or texts if I turn off all notifications?
Calls and texts still arrive, but you will not see an alert. If someone calls, your phone will ring if they call again within three minutes (this is the default behavior). You can also set up Focus modes to allow calls from specific people even when other notifications are off.
Can I turn off notifications for just one contact?
Not directly through the main notification settings. However, you can open the Messages app, find the conversation, swipe left on it, tap the bell icon to mute notifications for that chat, and choose how long to mute it. This works for individual conversations, not individual contacts across all apps.
What is the difference between turning off notifications and Do Not Disturb?
Turning off notifications in Settings is permanent until you change it back. Do Not Disturb is temporary — you turn it on for a few hours and it automatically turns off. Use Do Not Disturb for a quick break; use Settings to permanently silence apps you do not need to hear from.
If I turn off notifications, will my apps still update in the background?
Yes. Notifications and background app refresh are separate. Turning off notifications only stops the alerts. Apps will still read new content, check for updates, and work normally — you just will not be notified when something happens.
Can I turn off notifications for all apps except a few?
Yes, but it requires going through each app individually. A faster approach is to create a Focus mode that allows notifications only from the apps you care about, then turn that Focus on when you want silence from everything else.