Smartphones constantly bombard users with notifications: from important work emails and messages from loved ones to food delivery promotions or reminders about new series. An overload of such alerts is distracting, makes you pick up your phone more often and can lead to “notification fatigue”.
Completely turning off all notifications using Do Not Disturb mode is the simplest, but not always the most convenient option. On both iPhone and Android you can fine-tune the system: keep only the alerts you genuinely need and get rid of the rest.
1. Delete unnecessary apps
Before changing your notification settings, it is worth reviewing all the apps you have installed and removing those you have not used for a long time. The fewer apps you have, the fewer potential notifications and the easier the subsequent set-up. To delete an app, simply press and hold its icon and select the delete or uninstall option (the name may differ depending on your phone model).
2. Adjust how notifications appear on screen
To stop the screen tempting you every time it lights up, you can change how notifications are displayed.
On iPhone, in the “Settings” > “Notifications” menu you can choose which apps are allowed to send alerts, how they appear on the Lock Screen and Home Screen, whether to show a preview of the text, and so on. For the most minimalist look, go to the “Display As” section and select “Count” — then only the number of notifications will be shown at the bottom of the Lock Screen, and you can see the full list by swiping up.
On Android, the path to the settings depends on the manufacturer. In the system menu, look for a section related to the lock screen or notifications (for example, “Lock screen” or “Notifications”), and there choose whether to show notifications on the locked screen and in what format.
3. Schedule when you receive notifications
To stop your phone distracting you throughout the day, you can set notifications to be delivered as summaries at specific times.
On iPhone this is done via “Settings” > “Notifications” > “Scheduled Summary”. After switching the feature on, the user chooses which apps will have their notifications included in the summary and at what times to receive it. These alerts are grouped and sorted by importance, including based on how frequently you use each app.
On Google Pixel smartphones you can use the Notification Organizer feature, which uses AI to mute and bundle low-priority notifications. The user decides which alerts to group and which apps to leave unchanged. On Samsung Galaxy devices, in “Settings” > “Notifications” > “Sort and filter” you can choose to sort notifications by priority.
4. Create your own focus mode
On iPhone, Do Not Disturb mode allows you to turn off notifications completely, but there are also additional profiles — “Work”, “Sleep”, “Personal”, “Driving” and “Fitness”. Each of them can be configured to allow alerts only from selected contacts or apps and to switch on according to a schedule. For example, in “Sleep” mode you can allow calls only from your closest people, and in “Work” mode — notifications from email or work messengers.
If the standard options do not suit you, you can create your own Focus Mode. To do this, open Control Centre, tap “Focus” and add a new mode, where you specify separately which notifications to block, when exactly to activate the mode and which exceptions to allow.
On Android, similar options are available via the “Digital Wellbeing” section on Google Pixel smartphones: in the Focus sub-menu the user sets how long the mode will be active and the list of apps whose notifications will be restricted. On other Android models you can usually find similar settings by looking for “Do Not Disturb” in the menu.
5. Limit notifications from individual apps
Many services actively send push notifications to keep users engaged, but most of these alerts are not critically important. It is therefore worth manually switching off or limiting notifications from the most persistent apps.
On iPhone this is done via “Settings” > “Notifications”. The “Notification Style” section shows a list of all apps. After selecting the one you want, you can completely disable notifications for it, turn off the sound or change how they are displayed.
On Android, in the “Settings” > “Notifications” > “App notifications” menu (on Pixel — “All apps”) you will also see a list of apps. For each one you can either turn notifications off altogether or change their priority.
6. Temporarily mute notifications
If you do not want to radically change all your settings straight away, you can start by temporarily muting certain alerts without blocking them completely.
On iPhone, simply swipe a notification to the right, tap “Options” and choose “Mute for 1 Hour” or “Mute for Today”. In the same menu there is an option to turn off notifications from a specific app entirely.
On Google Pixel there is a Notification Cooldown feature: when the system detects a large number of notifications in a short period of time, it automatically lowers the volume and makes alerts less intrusive for up to one minute. You can view them by pulling down the notification shade. You can enable this feature in “Settings” > “Notifications”, where Notification Cooldown is located in the general settings.
By following these steps consistently, users can significantly reduce the number of unnecessary notifications, focus on what matters and be less distracted by their smartphone.