What does it mean to mute notifications?

Muting notifications is a way to temporarily turn off notifications from apps, contacts, or conversations on your smartphone or computer. It allows you to take a break from the constant pings and buzzes without fully disconnecting. Muting gives you more control over when and how you receive notifications.

Why would you want to mute notifications?

There are many reasons why muting notifications can be useful:

Reduce distractions – Notifications can interrupt your focus and distract you from important tasks. Muting allows you to avoid disruptions when you need to concentrate.

Manage information overload – Many notifications aren’t urgent or relevant. Muting helps filter out the noise.
Avoid burnout – The onslaught of pings from your devices can be mentally taxing. Muting gives you a break from this overload.
Improve mental health – Studies show that constant notifications can increase anxiety and depression. Muting provides space from this overstimulation.

Prioritize people – Life’s most meaningful interactions happen with people, not devices. Muting notifications can help you be present in real life conversations.
Get better sleep – Notifications often disrupt sleep. Muting at night allows you to rest peacefully without distractions.
Increase productivity – Fewer distractions can help you focus, enter flow states, and work more efficiently.

How to mute notifications on an iPhone

There are a few ways to mute notifications on an iPhone:

Mute individual conversations – Open a conversation in Messages, tap the contact name at the top, and toggle “Hide Alerts” on or off.
Mute in Notification Center – Swipe left on a notification and tap the bell icon to mute.

Mute within apps – Open Settings, tap Notifications, select an app, and toggle off Allow Notifications.
Do Not Disturb – Swipe up to access Control Center and tap the moon icon to turn on Do Not Disturb until your next scheduled quiet time.
Mute with Focus – Set a Focus mode like Work or Sleep and mute apps and people that shouldn’t notify you.

How to mute notifications on Android

On Android devices, you can mute notifications in these ways:

Open the app’s notification settings – Long press a notification, tap the (i) icon, and turn notifications off.
Mute in Settings – Open Settings, tap Notifications, select an app, and turn notifications off.

Do Not Disturb – Swipe down twice from the top and tap the Do Not Disturb icon to mute until a set time.
Mute with Do Not Disturb exceptions – Set Do Not Disturb and allow exceptions by tapping People, Apps, Alarms to customize.
Pause notifications with Digital Wellbeing – Use Digital Wellbeing to pause apps for a set period of time.

How to mute notifications on Windows

On Windows PCs, muting notifications works like this:

Mute app notifications – Right-click a notification and select Turn off notifications for this app.
Mute in Settings – Open Settings, choose System then Notifications, select an app and toggle off Show notifications.

Focus Assist – Turn on Focus Assist to mute based on priority level.
Quiet hours – Set quiet hours to mute during certain times, like at night.
Customize by contact – Craft exceptions for people and apps you want alerts from.

How to mute notifications on Mac

Mac users can mute notifications in the following ways:

Mute app notifications – Click and hold a notification, then select Turn Off Notifications For…
Mute in System Preferences – Go to System Preferences, select Notifications & Focus, pick an app and disable notifications.

Do Not Disturb – Click the moon icon in the menu bar to mute notifications for 1 hour up to indefinitely.
Mute with Focus – Create a Focus profile like Work to mute chosen apps and allow certain people.
Pull down to manage – Drag down from the top right to reveal a manage icon for each app’s notifications.

Muting notifications on social media

Muting on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn works by adjusting notification settings:

Twitter – Go to Settings, select Notifications, tap a category like Tweets and turn off sounds and vibrations.
Facebook – Click the down arrow at the top, select Settings & Privacy, go to Settings and adjust notifications per preference.

Instagram – Tap your profile, go to the menu, choose Settings, select Notifications and toggle Allow Notifications off.
LinkedIn – Go to Settings & Privacy, pick Notifications and disable categories like Comments and Likes.

Muting notifications from texts and calls

Phones allow muting of texts and calls in different ways:

iPhone – Open Settings, go to Do Not Disturb, tap Silence, customize who can notify you.
Android – Enable Do Not Disturb, tap People, select All Contacts or Favorites to customize who can reach you.
Mute a conversation – Open details for a contact or group iMessage/text thread and toggle on Hide Alerts.

Block contacts – Swipe left on an iMessage or text conversation from a number and select info icon, scroll down and Block Contact.

Muting email notifications

Email services and apps allow muting like this:

Gmail – Click the gear icon, choose Notifications and disable notification dots, sounds, and vibrations.

Outlook – Open Settings, go to Manage Notifications and turn off specific account notifications.
Apple Mail – Access preferences from the Mail menu, select Notifications to mute new mail sounds and badges.
Desktop apps – Look in notification settings for the Chrome, Firefox, or Safari browser and mute email notifications.

Muting notifications at work

In professional settings, you can mute notifications by:

Slack – Click your profile, go to Preferences, select Notifications and turn off notification sounds and desktop alerts.
Microsoft Teams – Tap your profile picture, go to Settings, choose Notifications and disable banner and sound notifications per preference.

Zoom – Open Settings, go to the Notification tab, and toggle off options like New Message Notifications and Who’s In Meeting reminders.
Asana – Click your profile picture, select Settings and App notifications, then disable any unnecessary notifications.

Muting notifications at night

To mute notifications while sleeping, you can:

Set Do Not Disturb or Bedtime mode to automatically mute overnight notifications.
Enable Do Not Disturb exceptions to allow notifications from chosen people or apps.
Use airplane mode to disable all connections like calls, texts, email.

Mute the phone itself by engaging silent/vibrate switch.
Place phone in another room to keep it physically farther away.
Use apps like Sleep Cycle that limit notifications while monitoring sleep phases.

Are mute settings temporary or permanent?

Muting notifications provides two options – temporary or permanent:

Temporary – This mutes notifications briefly, from 30 minutes up to 24 hours. Examples are Do Not Disturb and Focus modes.
Permanent – This disables notifications until settings are changed again manually. For instance, toggling off notifications for an app in system settings.

Temporary muted settings provide a break from notifications when desired without losing the alerts forever. Permanent muted settings give constant control over eliminating disruptive or unnecessary notifications.

What notifications should you consider muting?

Evaluating which notifications to mute depends on personal preferences, but here are some common options to consider:

Social media – Mute non-essential pings from social apps to avoid distraction.

Games and entertainment apps – Mute fun apps when needing to focus.
Shopping/promotional emails – Disable marketing notifications and emails you don’t read.
News and weather – Mute the barrage of news alerts if feeling overloaded.

Work chat groups – Mute noisy work chats when unavailable or trying to focus.
Spam calls and texts – Block notifications from unsolicited numbers.

Evaluate which apps and contacts provide value vs. which ones are distracting or unnecessary. Mute accordingly.

Should you mute notifications from certain people?

It’s okay to mute notifications from certain people if needed, with some caveats:

Don’t mute close friends or family without communicating why you need less notifications temporarily.
Don’t permanently mute significant people in your life who you want to stay connected with.

Consider if you receive a high volume of unnecessary messages from someone. Politely explain the disruptions and ask to modify the frequency.
Refrain from muting out of passive aggressiveness or during conflict. Mute intentionally, not reactionarily.

In summary, thoughtful muting of people’s notifications can help manage your interactions in a healthy way. But communicate with care when limiting notifications from those closest to you.

Can you mute notifications on some devices but not others?

Yes, notification muting can be customized per device:

Mute your phone to avoid distractions when moving around but keep computer or tablet notifications on for working.
Mute work chat and email notifications on your personal smartphone but keep them active on your work computer.

Mute at night on your phone but allow notifications on a smartwatch or other device.

Tailor notification muting to each device depending on your needs in the moment. For example, muting during a work meeting on your phone but allowing computer notifications related to the meeting project to come through.

Should you permanently mute apps and contacts?

Here are some pros and cons of permanent muting:

Pros	Cons
Eliminates all disruptions from chosen sources	Risk of missing important notifications
Frees mental energy previously spent on notifications	Out of sight, out of mind – Could forget to re-enable
Prevents irrelevant notifications from competing for attention	Permanent settings require more effort to change later

In general, permanently muting tends to work best for eliminating clear notification noise. But use temporary muting for silencing sources you still want some notifications from, just not at the current moment.

How can you remember to unmute later?

Tips for remembering to re-enable notifications include:

Set calendar reminders to evaluate if you’re ready to unmute certain sources.

Choose temporary mute settings that automatically expire after a defined period.
Note which notifications you’ve muted in a list you revisit daily or weekly.
Periodically review notification settings to re-enable anything unnecessarily permanent.

Use muting methods like Do Not Disturb that send a reminder notification when they expire.

Developing a habit of reviewing muted notifications ensures you don’t miss important alerts long-term due to “set it and forget it” permanent settings.

Conclusion

Muting notifications allows you to take back control from the nonstop noise. Carefully evaluating which notifications to mute can help you disconnect from distraction, focus on what matters, and be more intentional about when and how you receive communications.

But beware of muting too aggressively without considering who and what might get lost along the way. With some forethought on when to mute, when to unmute, and how to avoid hiding away entirely, notification muting provides a valuable route to digital wellbeing.