Manage notifications
to minimise distractions
A quick guide
Manage notifications to minimise distractions
A quick guide
Can’t stop checking your phone whenever it buzzes? Here’s what you can do.
Some of us don’t have the luxury of silencing our phones during the workday, but we can choose which alerts to receive and which to disable to keep distractions to the minimum. Here’s how to manage notifications on Android and iOS devices.
Android devices
Manage notifications in general
Tap Settings > Notifications. Here are some things you can do:
- Customise Do not disturb: You can turn Do not disturb mode on and off, or tap in to schedule and fine-tune it. When Do not disturb is on, sound and vibration will be muted, except for items you allow within the settings (e.g. alarms).
- Tweak Status bar: Tap in to tweak what’s shown on your status bar, for example, choose between showing all notifications, or only three.
- Toggle recent notifications: Under Recently sent, you can turn notifications on or off for apps that have recently sent you alerts.
Manage notifications for individual apps
Go to Settings > Notifications. Under Recently sent, tap See all. Tap an individual app to manage its notifications. Settings you can change include:
- Show notifications: switching this off will hide all notifications for that app.
- Fine-grain controls for other types of alerts: for example, a chat app might give you the option to toggle notifications for likes and reactions, individual and group chats, or chat mentions.
- App icon badges: on or off.
iOS devices
Manage notifications in general
Tap Settings > Notifications > Show Previews and choose when you would like to receive notifications: Always, When Unlocked, or Never. This will apply to notification previews from all apps.
Manage notifications for individual apps
From the Lock screen
From the Lock screen, swipe left on an app notification and tap Manage. Choose one of these options (this will apply to all notifications from the app):
- Deliver Quietly: You won’t be alerted by notifications from this app, but they will show up in the Notification Centre.
- Turn Off: Disables all notifications for the app. If you change your mind, turn notifications back on in Settings > Notifications.
- Settings: Opens notification settings for that app.
From Notification Settings
Go to Settings > Notifications. Select an app under Notification Style to customise how it sends you notifications. Settings you can change include:
- Alerts: where they’re shown.
- Banner style: temporary or persistent.
- Sounds and badges: on or off.
- Previews: when they’re shown.
- Notification Grouping: by app, off, or automatic. Automatic allows for smarter notification stacking (e.g. your messages may be grouped by contacts).
