Trying to work but keep getting pinged? Here’s how to silence notifications on iPhone.
Need to get work done or just want to spend a quiet evening with the family uninterrupted by your phone? Then you’ll want to know how to quickly silence notifications from your iPhone.
There are multiple ways to silence – or even stop – notifications on your iPhone, but we’re going to walk you through the BEST and QUICKEST way to do so. Here’s goes…
How To Silence Notifications On iPhone: The QUICK Way
This is the #1 quickest way to silence notifications on an iPhone:
- On your iPhone, flip the physical ring/silent switch on the side of your iPhone to silent.
And that’s it! See – we told you it was easy. Just one step!
Once you switch the ring/silent button to silent a notification will appear at the top of your iPhone’s screen that says Silent Mode is on. You can also look at the ring/silent button and see the space behind it is an orange color. This is a visible confirmation that you have the button switched to silent mode.
On iPhones, the Ring/Silent button is on the left hand side of the device, right above the volume buttons. This is true for the iPhone 6 series and higher, the iPhone X and higher, including the newest iPhone 14 series.
What Does Silent Mode On iPhone Do?
So you’ve activated Silent Mode on iPhone using the steps above, but what does it actually do?
Silent Mode will NOT silence all the sounds coming from your iPhone. It WILL silence ringtones and audible alerts, but it WILL NOT silence specific sounds you choose to play, such as music or the audio in a video.
This is why Silent Mode is so great: you can get rid of the audible distractions for notifications while still hearing all the media you want.
Benefits Of Silence Mode On iPhone
Silent Mode on iPhone has many benefits. First, it can be activated and deactivated in a second. All you need to do is flip the switch on the side of your iPhone.
Second, it silences all notifications on your iPhone instantly.
Third – but as we mentioned above, if you choose to play audio on your iPhone, like music or video, your iPhone will still play that aloud.
When Should You Use Silence Mode On iPhone?
Some popped keep silent mode engaged all the time on their iPhone. However, most just choose to engage it during certain times – such as when they are in a meeting, at the movie theater, or when they are spending time with friends or family and don’t want to be interrupted.
How To Silence Notifications From Specific Apps On iPhone
Of course, when you activate Silent Mode on iPhone, it will silence ALL the audible notifications on your iPhone. But what if you just want to silence the notifications from a single app?
There’s a way to do that, too. And you could do it for just one app – or as many as you want.
And keep in mind that when we are talking about silencing notifications from a single app, we mean silencing the audible alert you get when the app delivers a notification. We are not talking about ceasing all visual notifications from that app.
To silence audible notifications from a single app (instructions for iOS 16):
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap Notifications.
- Tap the name of the app that you want to silence audible notifications for.
- Under the ALERTS header, toggle the Sounds switch to OFF (white).
This will stop the app from giving an audible alert any time it sends you a notification. As long as you don’t turn the other types of notifications off, the app can still send you vital notifications and also badge its app icon, alerting you there is a notification.
Michael Grothaus
Apple expert and novelist, Michael Grothaus has been covering tech on KnowYourMobile for the best part of 10 years. Prior to this, he worked at Apple. And before that, he was a film journalist. Michael is a published author; his book Epiphany Jones was voted as one of the best novels about Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly. Michael is also a writer at other publications including VICE and Fast Company.
