How do I manage notifications on my iPhone?
Notifications are the alerts that appear on your iPhone screen — messages, reminders, news headlines, and more. When you first install apps they often ask permission to send you notifications. Over time this can get overwhelming. You can choose exactly which apps are allowed to notify you and what kind of alerts they send. Important notifications to keep: your phone app (so you hear calls), Messages, and any health or medication reminder apps. Notifications you can probably turn off: most news apps, shopping apps, social media apps, and games. Turning off notifications does not mean missing important things — you can still open those apps and check them when you want to. You can also use "Focus" modes (like Do Not Disturb) to silence all notifications at night or during specific times, while still allowing calls from family members to come through.
How to manage your notifications
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Tap "Notifications".
- Tap on any app name to see its notification settings.
- Toggle "Allow Notifications" off for apps you want to silence.
- To set up Do Not Disturb: go to Settings → Focus → Do Not Disturb → set the hours you want to be undisturbed (for example, 10 PM to 8 AM).
- Under Do Not Disturb, you can allow calls from specific people like family to still come through.
The 3-Second Rule
Getting too many notifications? Go to Settings → Notifications. Any app you would not miss — turn its notifications off.
Learn More
Go deeper with our full lesson: Module 1: Mastering the Escape Hatch.