How to turn off notifications and use Do Not Disturb

You are in the middle of a spreadsheet, or sharing your screen in a meeting, and a message banner slides in. Everyone sees it, and your focus is gone. The good news: both Windows and Mac have a quiet mode built in, and you can also turn off the apps that bother you most.

This guide covers three things: switching off all notifications, using Do Not Disturb for a while, and silencing just one noisy app. Steps for Windows 11 come first, then the Mac, then how to ask Key to do it.

Which one do you want: Do Not Disturb or off for good?

These are two different tools, and picking the right one saves you trouble.

• Do Not Disturb is a quick pause. Alerts are held back while it is on, and you switch it off when you are done. It is the right choice for meetings, presentations and focused work.
• Turning notifications off is more permanent. Nothing pops up until you turn it back on. Use this when you simply never want to see these alerts.
• Turning off one app keeps everything else working. Use this when only one app is the problem.

Turn off notifications on Windows 11

Turn off all notifications

1. Open Start, then choose Settings.
2. Go to Settings › System › Notifications.
3. Switch the toggle next to Notifications to Off.

You can open Settings faster by pressing Windows + I.

Turn off notifications for one app only

1. Go to Settings › System › Notifications.
2. Under Notifications from apps and other senders, find the app that keeps interrupting you.
3. Click the app and switch its notifications toggle to Off.

Other apps keep working as before, so you still hear about the things that matter.

Use Do Not Disturb on Windows 11

1. Open the notification center by clicking the date and time at the right end of the taskbar.
2. Click the bell icon with zZ on it.

Alerts are now silenced until you click that bell again. Notifications that arrive in the meantime wait for you in the notification center.

Make Do Not Disturb turn on by itself

If you forget to switch it on before meetings, let Windows do it for you.

1. Go to Settings › System › Notifications.
2. Open Turn on do not disturb automatically.
3. Tick the situations you want: during certain times of day, when duplicating your display, when playing a game, when using an app in full-screen mode, or for the first hour after a Windows feature update.

"When duplicating your display" is a handy one if you often plug into a projector or TV.

Let the important things through

You may want Do Not Disturb on but still need a call from your boss. On the same Notifications page, under Calls and reminders, you can allow incoming calls and reminders. Under Apps, choose Add apps to let specific apps still reach you while Do Not Disturb is on.

Turn off notifications on a Mac

Use Do Not Disturb on a Mac

1. Click the Control Center icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
2. Click in the Focus section.
3. Choose Do Not Disturb.
4. Pick how long: for example For 1 hour, or until the end of a calendar event.
5. Click on the desktop to close Control Center.

There is also a shortcut: hold Option and click the date and time in the menu bar to switch Do Not Disturb on or off.

Apple calls this feature a Focus. Do Not Disturb is one of them, and you can also make others such as Work. If you want a Focus to start and stop on its own, you can set a schedule in the Focus settings.

Turn off notifications for one app on a Mac

1. Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner and choose System Settings.
2. Click Notifications in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down to see it.
3. Under Application Notifications, click the app.
4. Switch Allow Notifications to off.

You do not have to turn an app off completely. On that same page you can choose whether alerts appear as temporary or persistent banners, hide message previews, turn off the sound, or remove the number badge on the Dock icon. Often a quieter setting is all you need.

On older versions of macOS the app is called System Preferences rather than System Settings, so the names above may look a little different.

Ask Key to do it for you

If you would rather not click through menus, you can ask Key. It is a free assistant that lives on your computer. You can speak to it or type to it, and both give the same result. It opens the real Settings window, changes the setting and tells you what it did.

You only need half a sentence. Key works out what you meant, does it in the real app, and then checks the result before it tells you. If it cannot check, it says so. While it works, a small panel shows what it is doing, and you can stop it at any point.

KeyVoice

Turn on Do Not Disturb for the next hour

opened the notification settingsswitched on do not disturbread the setting back

Do Not Disturb is on, so pop-ups will stay quiet.

Checked: Do Not Disturb shows as on in the settings.

This is the same kind of job as the ones in how to change brightness, dark mode and other settings by voice. Key does not need anything connected first, and every feature is in the free download. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, and on any Mac with macOS 11 Big Sur or newer.

One more thing that helps in a busy day: tell Key to remind you of something at a set time, the way you would tell a friend. That way, when you have silenced everything, you still will not miss the thing you need to remember.

Quick tips for a calmer screen

• Start with the worst offender. Most people have one or two apps that make most of the noise. Turn off just those first.
• Use Do Not Disturb for meetings. Switch it on before you share your screen, so a private message does not appear for everyone to read.
• Set a schedule. On Windows, use the automatic rules. On a Mac, set a schedule for a Focus. Then you never have to remember.
• Remember to switch it back. If a message you expected never arrived, check whether Do Not Disturb is still on. On Windows look for the bell with zZ, and on a Mac look at the Focus icon in the menu bar.
• Keep the calls you need. On Windows, allow calls and reminders. On a Mac, you can choose which people and apps may still reach you in the Focus settings.

If it still does not work

If you still see pop-ups after turning things off, the culprit is usually the app itself. Some programs, such as a web browser, have their own notification settings inside the app. Open the app, look in its settings for a section called Notifications, and turn off the alerts there.

If a notification you want has gone missing, go back to the Notifications page and make sure the app is still switched on. Then check that Do Not Disturb is off.

Want to see more of what Key can do day to day? Take a look at what an AI assistant on your PC can do every day.

Related guide: Cortana alternative for Windows 11 and Windows 10: what to use now

Related guide: Siri for Windows: is there one, and what to use on a PC instead