“The temperature has dropped by 0.2°C.” “You have a new email from a Nigerian prince.” “Someone you don’t care about has posted on Facebook.” If you’re as sick of these buzzing interruptions as I am, it’s time to take control.
Here, I show how to block Android notifications – but keep the ones you want.
Block Android notifications: step 1
First, head to the Notifications area of your Android phone. This isn’t always obvious, but if you click on Settings and click on Apps or “Apps & notifications” then it should take you to a screen similar to the one below.
Block Android notifications: step 2
You can take the nuclear approach of choosing to block all notifications, but that’s not what most people want. Instead, you’ll need to go through the pain of going through each app and telling it you want to block notifications.
For example, here’s what my Outlook notifications settings look like.
Do you need to go through every single app installed? Probably not. You’ll know which apps are annoying you, so prioritise those.
Block Android notifications: step 3
The job ain’t done yet. The final step is to take control of when Android gives notifications at all. You need to find the “Do not disturb” options in Settings.
On the Asus ZenFone 5 I’m currently using, based on Android 8, this is part of the Sound settings. However, your phone may differ.
Block Android notifications: step 4
There are plenty of options in “Do not disturb” that you can play with. Again, these will vary on your phone, but I can choose between “Alarms only”, “Total silence” and a customisable “Allow list” of apps that can break through the silence.
You can also take control of the time when you don’t want to be disturbed. For example, if this is your work phone, you may set it to stay silent from 5.30pm to 9am on workdays.
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