Constant popups, banners sliding in from the corner of your screen, and notification chimes can make it impossible to get any work done on your Mac. Whether you want to permanently silence a specific annoying app or temporarily mute everything so you can focus, macOS gives you complete control over your notifications.
How to Turn Off Notifications for a Specific App
If you only want to stop notifications from a particularly chatty application (like Mail, Messages, or a web browser):
- Click the Apple menu () in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings (or System Preferences on older Macs).
- Click Notifications in the left sidebar.
- Scroll down to the “Application Notifications” section. You will see a list of every app that is allowed to alert you.
- Click on the app you want to silence.
- Toggle the switch for Allow notifications to the OFF position.
Pro Tip: If you still want the notifications to quietly collect in your Notification Center without interrupting you, keep “Allow notifications” ON, but uncheck the options for “Play sound for notification” and change the alert style to “None.”
How to Temporarily Mute All Notifications (Focus Mode)
If you are about to share your screen in a meeting, or you just need an hour of uninterrupted work time, you should use the Do Not Disturb (Focus) feature instead of manually turning off every app.
- Look at the top-right corner of your screen (your menu bar) and click the Control Center icon (it looks like two small toggle switches).
- Click anywhere in the Focus box (it usually has a moon icon and says “Do Not Disturb”).
- This instantly silences all banners and sounds. You can click it again to set a specific duration (e.g., “For 1 hour” or “Until this evening”).
To turn it off and allow notifications through again, simply open the Control Center and click the highlighted Focus button to disable it.