My phone interrupts me all day long. Am I supposed to be getting all these notifications?
Question:
My phone seems to be constantly buzzing or lighting up about something—news, games, shopping, email, you name it. Some of it is useful, but most of it just annoys me. My daughter says I should turn off my notifications, but I'm worried I'll miss something important. Do I just have to put up with all of this?
The short answer
No. Your phone is supposed to work for you, not demand your attention all day.
Your daughter is partly right: you can turn off notifications. But that doesn't mean you have to choose between getting everything or getting nothing.
You can decide which apps are allowed to interrupt you and which ones can wait until you choose to look at them.
Start with the notifications that bother you most
The next time your phone buzzes or lights up unnecessarily, notice which app sent the notification.
It might be:
Facebook
a shopping app
a news app
a game
your email app
Then ask yourself:
Do I actually need this app to get my attention right away?
You might decide that text messages, calendar reminders, or weather alerts are important to you, while sales announcements or game updates are not.
If you have an iPhone
You don't have to make the same choice for every app. Start with one app that's bothering you and decide how much attention you want it to be able to get.
First: Do you want notifications from this app at all?
Open Settings.
Tap Notifications.
Scroll down and tap the app you want to change.
Look for Allow Notifications.
If you don't want that app to notify you at all, turn Allow Notifications off.
That's the simplest choice: the app can still be on your phone, but it won't pop up to get your attention.
If you do want notifications, decide where they should appear
Maybe you want to know when something happens in the app, but you don't need it popping up everywhere.
With Allow Notifications turned on, look for the different ways an alert can appear. Depending on your iPhone and iOS version, you may see choices such as:
Lock Screen: The notification can appear when your phone is locked.
Notification Center: The notification is saved in the list you can review later.
Banners: The notification can appear across the top of your screen while you're using your phone.
You can turn these options on or off separately.
For example, you might decide that a shopping app can put its notifications in Notification Center, where you can look at them when you choose, but you don't want its sales alerts appearing on your Lock Screen or as Banners while you're doing something else.
You may also be able to make notifications less attention-getting
On the same screen, you may see additional choices such as:
Sounds: Turn this off if you don't want the app making a noise.
Badges: These are the little numbered circles that can appear on an app's icon.
Banner Style: If banners are turned on, you may be able to choose whether they disappear automatically or stay on the screen until you dismiss them.
You don't have to change all of these settings. If one thing is driving you crazy—maybe the sounds, the banners, or the constant Lock Screen alerts—start there.
What might this look like in real life?
Your choices will depend on what matters to you. For example:
Text messages: You might want these to appear on your Lock Screen, make a sound, and show a banner because you want to know about them quickly.
Weather: You might want notifications for important weather alerts but not necessarily every routine update.
Shopping app: You might let notifications collect quietly in Notification Center—or turn them off completely if you don't care about sales announcements.
Game: If you don't need reminders that it's your turn or that a bonus is available, you might turn its notifications off altogether.
There isn't one “correct” notification setup. The point is to decide which apps deserve to interrupt you, and how.
If you have an Android phone
Android phones vary somewhat depending on the manufacturer, so the wording on your screen may be slightly different.
A common route is:
Open Settings.
Tap Notifications.
Tap App notifications.
Find the app that's sending too many notifications.
Tap the app.
Turn its notifications off—or choose which types of notifications it is allowed to send.
There's also a handy shortcut on many Android phones: when an unwanted notification appears, touch and hold the notification, then look for Settings or a gear icon. That can take you directly to that app's notification controls.
You don't have to fix everything at once
If your phone sends dozens of notifications every day, don't feel like you need to review every app in one sitting.
Instead, deal with them one at a time.
When an annoying notification appears, ask:
Do I want this app interrupting me?
If the answer is no, change that app's settings.
After a few days, your phone may already feel much quieter.
One thing to be careful about
Before turning something off, think about whether the notification could be important to you—such as emergency alerts, account-security notices, calls, messages, or appointment reminders.
The goal isn't a phone that never communicates with you.
It's a phone that gets your attention when you actually want it to.
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