How to turn off and manage Android notifications

The fastest way to stop notifications from a single app is to touch and hold one of its notifications and tap the settings that appear, or open Settings > Notifications > App settings and switch that app off. Android gives you finer controls than an all-or-nothing switch, too: you can silence one kind of alert, keep the rest, and quiet everything on a schedule. Here is how each control works and when to reach for it. The paths below use stock Pixel wording; Samsung’s One UI and other skins move a few menus around, so treat the routes as a guide.

Turn off notifications for one app#

There are two routes to the same result, per Google’s guide to controlling notifications on Android. From a notification: swipe down from the top of the screen, touch and hold the notification, then tap the gear or Settings. From there you can turn off all notifications for that app, or just the type in front of you. From the menus: open Settings, tap Notifications, then App settings (some phones say App notifications), find the app in the list, and turn its switch off.

On Android 13 and later, an app’s notifications are also a permission. You can revoke it at Settings > Apps > the app > Permissions > Notifications and set it to Don’t allow, which is the same switch the app asked about when you installed it. Google documents this route under changing an app’s permissions.

Categories, silent, and alerting#

Most apps split their alerts into categories, which Android calls channels. A chat app separates direct messages from group chatter; a shopping app separates order updates from promotions. Open the app inside App settings and you can leave the useful category on and switch the noise off, instead of muting the whole app.

For a category or an app you want to keep but not hear, set it to Silent. A silent notification still appears in the shade, but the phone won’t ring, buzz, or light up for it. An alerting notification does the opposite: sound, vibration, and a message on the lock screen.

Setting	Sound or vibration	Appears in the shade	Wakes or lights the screen
Alerting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Silent	No	Yes	No
Off (blocked)	No	No	No

Do Not Disturb and snooze#

When you want quiet without touching any app’s settings, use Do Not Disturb. Swipe down from the top of the screen and tap Do Not Disturb to silence sounds and vibrations for everything except what you allow. In Settings, under Modes or Sound & vibration depending on the phone, you can add exceptions so calls from starred contacts, alarms, or chosen apps still come through, and set a schedule so it turns on every night on its own. Google’s Do Not Disturb instructions note that system security notifications still show; those can’t be blocked.

Snooze is for a single notification you plan to handle later. First turn it on at Settings > Notifications > Allow notification snoozing, which works on Android 11 and up. Then, on any notification, tap the down arrow and tap Snooze, or swipe it slowly to the side and tap the clock. It disappears and returns after the time you pick.

Stop the prompt for every new app#

On Android 13 and later, a newly installed app can’t send notifications until it asks and you agree. When the “Allow this app to send you notifications?” box appears, tap Don’t allow and the app stays quiet, with no need to hunt through settings afterward. If you already tapped Allow, undo it at Settings > Apps > the app > Permissions > Notifications, or from Settings > Notifications > App settings. There is no single switch that pre-denies every future app, but because the permission now defaults to off, each app has to earn its way in one prompt at a time.

Notifications are a quiet drain on attention and battery, so trimming them helps beyond a tidier shade. If your phone still feels busy or sluggish, it is worth learning to free up resources on a slow Android phone and to make the battery last longer. And for the alerts that arrive as texts and calls rather than app pushes, see how to stop spam texts and robocalls on Android.