How to turn off notifications on a Mac

Mac notifications pile up fast. Whether you want total silence for deep work or just want to tame a specific noisy app, macOS gives you fine-grained control — per-app alert styles, badge toggles, sounds on or off, and a full Do Not Disturb mode when you need a clean break.

Turn off all notifications temporarily

The fastest option is Do Not Disturb (part of the Focus system introduced in macOS 12 Monterey). It silences everything without permanently changing any per-app settings.

Click the date and time in the top-right corner of the menu bar → Focus → Do Not Disturb. You'll get duration options: 1 hour, until this evening, or until tomorrow. Pick one and every notification banner and sound goes quiet for that window.

To turn it off before the timer expires, click the date/time again and tap Do Not Disturb to toggle it off.

Turn off notifications for one app

For permanent per-app control: System Settings → Notifications → select the app from the list. You'll see:

• Allow Notifications — the master switch. Turn it off to block everything from that app.
• Alert style — None (silent), Banner (disappears automatically), or Alert (stays until dismissed).
• Sounds — play a sound with each notification or don't.
• Badge app icon — show the red count badge on the Dock icon.
• Show in Notification Center — whether past notifications appear in the sidebar.

You can mix and match. For example: banners off, badge on, sounds off — so an app is visible in the Dock but doesn't interrupt you.

Common offenders worth silencing

A few apps tend to spam notifications in ways that aren't obviously useful:

• Safari website notifications — news sites and blogs that asked permission to send push notifications. Most people forget they agreed. These are worth killing entirely (see next section).
• News — sends breaking news alerts throughout the day. Set to None for alert style unless you want them.
• Game Center — friend requests and game updates. Almost always safe to mute.
• Reminders — the badge count can pile up if you use Reminders loosely. Consider turning off the badge if you manage it on your own schedule.
• Mail sounds — the mail chime on every incoming message is a classic productivity drain. Turn off sounds in Mail's notification settings without disabling badges.

Turn off Safari website notifications specifically

Safari website notifications are a special category. To block them all at the OS level: System Settings → Notifications → Safari → Allow Notifications → off.

To manage on a per-site basis (or revoke permissions already granted): open Safari → Settings → Websites → Notifications. You'll see every site that has asked for permission. Select any you want gone and click Remove, or change their status to Deny. You can also check "Block all websites from asking" at the bottom to stop future requests.

Stop banner interruptions but keep the badge

This is the most useful per-app configuration for apps like Mail, Slack, and Messages. In System Settings → Notifications → [App]:

1. Set the alert style to None — no banner will appear over your work.
2. Leave Badge app icon on — the red count appears on the Dock icon.
3. Turn Sounds off.

You'll see unread counts at a glance when you look at the Dock, without ever being interrupted mid-sentence.

Use the notification summary for low-priority apps

If you don't want to disable an app's notifications entirely but don't need them in real time, the Notification Summary feature batches them into a scheduled delivery. System Settings → Notifications → Scheduled Summary → turn it on and set delivery times (morning and evening is a common setup). Then add apps to the summary list — News, RSS readers, and social apps are good candidates.

Those apps' notifications won't interrupt you during the day. Instead they accumulate and arrive as a single summary bundle at the times you chose.