In a short guide I want to show you the possibilities of muting Messages notifications on your iPhone and iPad. You might just be fed up with the incessant notifications from your device, specifically the iMessage application. But you no longer have to subject yourself to this barrage.
Hi! It’s your friend Frankie Caruso – a messaging app expert for iMessage and others, as well as an ethical hacking technique pupil. Welcome everyone to my blog. Today, I am discussing how to disable sound notifications from Messages on your iPhone.
Good news: conversations in Messages app can be muted to prevent you from hearing (and seeing) notifications. The application itself provides an easy way to mute all notifications from each conversation whether you are using an iPhone, an iPad or your Mac computer.
Tip: Looking for a more dramatic and complete approach? You might consider blocking a contact instead.
Let’s not waste more time and get right into it.
What do you need to know?
- If you don’t want to keep getting notifications from a serial sender, you can mute them.
- You do not have to mute everyone to mute the problematic contact. You can just silence specific conversations as you like. (It is also possible to mute a group.)
- It is also possible to mute when you are mentioned in a message.
Mute iMessage (and SMS) Notifications on Your iPhone
Disabling notifications for texts and messages with iMessage is easy to do.
Note: This tutorial also mirrors the steps necessary on an iPad.
Let me show you what steps you need to follow:
- Launch Settings from your home screen.
- Click on Notifications.
- Scroll down until you find the Messages app, click it.
- Tap on Sound and choose None under Alert Tones.
That’s it!
From here, when someone sends you a message either through iMessage or a general SMS text, your iPhone will not alert you with an audible tone. However, you will still get visual notifications like banners. If you want to remove these as well, you will need to turn off all message notifications but toggling “Allow Notifications” to off.
Frankie’s Take:
If you have changed your mind and wish to reactivate hearing sounds, you have to follow the same steps to find Alert Tones and choose a sound to use instead. Personally, I use ‘Bamboo’ because it’s not obnoxious or annoying.
Muting Notifications for Specific Conversation or Group
As I mentioned, it is possible to mute notifications for specific conversations or groups instead of all incoming messages.
Here is how you do that:
- Launch Messages on your iPhone or iPad
- Find a chat to mute, then swipe left.
- You can then click the silent bell icon to mute the thread.
Pretty easy, isn’t it?
Now, you can choose to mute as many conversations as you might care to, including whole group chats. I should stress, though because so many have asked, that those you silence on your phone will NOT know they were muted.
Frankie’s Take:
If you wish to unmute the chat, you just need to repeat these steps by clicking the bell icon again. This action unmutes the messages, and notifications resume as normal.
Turn Off Notifications for Mentions on Messages App
The Mentions feature is fairly new to the Messages app. While this can be useful to have a direct message shared to an individual when part of a larger group, this can also be an annoyance when overused or used improperly.
Not to worry, you can also mute these!
How do you do this? Let me show you.
- Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap on Messages.
- Scroll until you see Mentions and toggle Notify Me to OFF.
That’s the gist of it.
Frankie’s Take:
In addition, if you have second thoughts about this muting as well, you can reactivate easily following the same steps and toggling the Notify Me indicator back to on.
Bonus Trick: Mute Notifications on Mac Messages App
It is not a stretch to say that most iPhone users also have a Mac. For this reason, I also chose to expand my guide to show how to mute notifications on these devices as well still using the Messages application.
Here is how you can do this:
- Launch System Preferences App on your Mac.
- Click Notifications
- Choose Messages.
- Remove flag on Play Sound for Notifications.
I doubt it could be much easier than that.
Frankie’s Take:
If you want to get these notification sounds going again, you must follow the same steps. When you reach step #3, choose to Play Sound for Notifications.
Do Not Disturb Mode – A Quick Alternative Approach
It is also possible that silencing notifications is not meant to be permanent, and you would rather just limit the audio for an allotted period of time. This is where the ‘Do Not Disturb’ function is going to help. While active, you will not receive notifications from any sender’s messages while you have your screen locked.
Instead, you will see a half-moon appear in your status bar indicating that the Do Not Disturb function is active. To turn it on or off, you can follow one of two approaches:
Go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb or Schedule (if you want to set times to accept notifications)
You can also open up the Control Center by swiping up on the home screen, tap on the half-moon icon, and then choose Do Not Disturb.
Note: If your iPhone has not been updated to iOS 15, you should see the procedure that Apple provides for this need you have.
Conclusion
Hopefully this how to guide was able to help you better understand muting notifications in many different ways and for any different reasons.
If you are still struggling with these steps, or have more questions about how to do it, feel free to comment below so someone here can reach out and help you.
Want to stay informed about all the latest tips and tricks for iMessage? Take a minute and subscribe to my YouTube channel or Instagram page.
A hug,
Frankie
PS – You can learn how to block an unknown contact or spam number through the Messages app.
