How to Silence Notifications on iPhone (iOS 18)

By Sarah Chen | Updated June 2026

To silence notifications on iPhone, go to Settings, tap Notifications, select the app, then turn off Allow Notifications. For total quiet, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center and activate Do Not Disturb or any Focus mode. Both methods work on iOS 16, 17, and 18 without affecting what the other person sees or triggering any notification to them.

iOS has gotten much more granular about notifications over the past few years. You can now silence a single app, a specific contact, unknown callers, or every notification at once, and you can schedule each of those silences to turn on and off automatically. The six methods below cover every scenario, with the exact taps required for each one.

Whether you need quiet for an hour or want to permanently cut off a noisy app, the full guides section has more iPhone walkthroughs alongside this one.

How to Silence Notifications for One App

This is the most common request, and the path is the same across iOS 16, 17, and 18.

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Scroll down and tap the app you want to silence.
4. Toggle off Allow Notifications at the top.

That toggle is the kill switch. Once it is off, the app cannot show banners, play sounds, or badge its icon. The app itself keeps running normally, and you will still see older notifications if you open the app directly. You are not blocking anything inside the app, only the interruptions it sends to your lock screen and notification center.

If you want a softer approach, leave Allow Notifications on but turn off Sounds and Badges individually. This way the app still logs alerts in notification center, but your phone stays silent. A third option on this same screen is to set delivery to Scheduled Summary, which batches that app’s alerts into a digest delivered once or twice a day. Good for news apps, newsletters, or anything that sends a burst of non-urgent pings throughout the day.

You can also silence an app directly from a notification itself. Long-press any banner alert and tap the three-dot menu. iOS will offer to turn off that app’s notifications immediately, or let you choose to keep the alerts but send them silently without a sound. This shortcut skips the Settings path entirely and works on any notification banner, whether it appears on your lock screen or drops down from the top of the screen.

How to Silence Notifications from a Specific Person

iOS does not have a global “mute this contact” setting, but inside Messages the feature works cleanly and the other person will never know.

1. Open the Messages app and find the conversation thread.
2. Tap the contact name or number at the top of the screen.
3. Toggle on Hide Alerts.

A small moon icon will appear next to that conversation in your messages list, which is your only visual cue that alerts are muted. The contact receives no notification of any kind that you have done this. Their messages arrive as normal, they just do not make noise or appear on your lock screen while Hide Alerts is active. You can still read every message by opening the thread.

This same option exists in FaceTime and in group chats. For group chats, tap the group name at the top of the conversation and follow the same steps. Muting a noisy group thread this way is one of the fastest relief moves on iOS.

For calls specifically, you cannot mute a single contact’s incoming calls without blocking them entirely. The closest alternative is Focus mode, covered in the next section, where you can allow calls only from specific people, effectively silencing everyone else.

How to Silence All Notifications at Once

Do Not Disturb and the custom Focus modes in iOS 16 and later are the right tools here. Both live in Control Center and in Settings under Focus.

To turn on Do Not Disturb immediately, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center, then tap the crescent moon icon. Your phone goes silent for all calls and notifications. People in your contacts who call twice within three minutes will still ring through by default, which covers genuine emergencies without leaving you completely unreachable.

Do Not Disturb is one preset inside the broader Focus system. Other built-in options include Sleep, Personal, and Work, and you can create custom Focus modes for any scenario. Each one lets you define exactly which apps and which people can still reach you. Going into Settings, then Focus, then selecting any mode gives you two separate allow-lists: one for people, one for apps. Everyone and everything not on those lists gets silenced.

iOS also introduced Focus Filters in iOS 16, which go further than notifications. A Focus filter can switch your Safari tab group, change your Mail inbox view, or shift your calendar to show only work events, all when a specific Focus activates. For most people the notification allow-list alone is enough, but the filters are there if you want the full context switch.

How to Silence Notifications Temporarily

You do not need to remember to turn Focus off. iOS gives you time-based and location-based options that handle it automatically.

When you activate a Focus mode from Control Center, hold down the Focus icon instead of just tapping it. A menu appears with three options: For 1 Hour, Until This Evening, and Until I Leave This Location. Pick any of these and Focus turns itself off when the condition is met, no manual toggle required.

For recurring schedules, go to Settings, tap Focus, select a mode, then tap Add Schedule. You can set it to activate every weeknight from 10 PM to 7 AM, or on weekends, or whenever you arrive at a specific location. Once a schedule is set, your phone manages it without you ever opening Settings again. The schedule runs silently in the background across every day you specify, including the next time you pick up your phone after waking up. That last point matters because many people expect to find Focus already off when they reach for their phone in the morning, and with a schedule active, it will be.

The Sleep Focus mode ties into the Health app’s sleep schedule. If you have set a bedtime in Health, Sleep Focus turns on and off automatically around those hours. This is the most hands-off way to silence your phone at night without touching a single toggle before bed.

Explore more tech tips and iOS walkthroughs to get the most out of your iPhone’s built-in tools.

Use the Scheduled Summary for Non-Urgent Apps

Scheduled Summary is an underused iOS 15 feature that holds notifications from selected apps and delivers them in a single batch at times you choose, typically morning and evening. It is different from silencing an app entirely: the alerts still arrive, they just arrive together rather than one at a time throughout the day.

To set it up, go to Settings, tap Notifications, then tap Scheduled Summary at the top of the screen. Toggle it on, then select the apps you want included. iOS will suggest apps based on how many notifications they send. Add delivery times (you can have more than two if you want), and those apps drop off your lock screen entirely between deliveries.

The best candidates fall into four categories: news and editorial apps (BBC News, Apple News, newsletter apps), social platforms (Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn), email clients you do not need to monitor in real time, and group chat threads in apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. These typically fire between 20 and 60 notifications per day combined, none of which require an immediate response. Putting them in a summary removes the constant drip of interruptions without losing any information. Phone calls, banking alerts, and messages from your immediate family should stay outside the summary since those can require a fast response.

One practical note: the summary appears as a single notification card at the top of your notification center at the scheduled time. Tapping it expands the full list. The experience is cleaner than it sounds.

How to Silence Unknown Callers and Spam

Robocalls and spam from numbers not in your contacts are a separate problem from app notifications, and iOS has a one-tap solution.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Phone.
3. Tap Silence Unknown Callers.
4. Toggle it on.

Any call from a number not saved in your contacts, not in your recent call list, and not suggested by Siri based on emails or messages will go straight to voicemail. The caller can leave a message. You will see a missed call in the Phone app, but your phone will not ring. Known contacts are unaffected entirely.

This feature works well for most people, but there is a real tradeoff: calls from doctors’ offices, delivery services, or any number you have never saved will also be silenced. If you are expecting a callback from an unfamiliar number, toggle this off temporarily until the call comes through, then turn it back on.

iOS also integrates with carrier-level spam detection in some regions. On supported carriers, you may see a “Spam Risk” or “Scam Likely” label appear on the call screen even before you answer. This is separate from the Silence Unknown Callers toggle and does not require any setup on your part.

For a broader look at managing your iPhone’s sound and alert settings, the latest iPhone coverage at 3 Zebras tracks changes across iOS versions as Apple updates the notification system.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I silence notifications for just one app on iPhone?

Go to Settings, tap Notifications, then tap the app. Turn off Allow Notifications to block all alerts from that app. If you want the app to still log alerts quietly without sound or banners, leave Allow Notifications on but turn off Sounds and set the alert style to None. The change takes effect immediately and applies to iOS 16, 17, and 18.

Does Hide Alerts in Messages notify the other person?

No. When you turn on Hide Alerts in a Messages thread, the other person receives no notification of any kind. Their messages arrive on your iPhone as normal, they simply will not interrupt you with sounds or lock screen banners. The only visible sign is a moon icon next to the conversation in your messages list, which only you can see.

How do I silence notifications at night automatically?

Use Sleep Focus or create a scheduled Focus mode. Go to Settings, tap Focus, select Sleep, then tap Add Schedule. Set your desired bedtime and wake time. iOS activates Sleep Focus automatically at those hours every day. If you have already set a sleep schedule in the Health app, Sleep Focus can sync to those hours directly.

What is the difference between Hide Alerts and blocking someone?

Hide Alerts only silences notification sounds and lock screen banners for a conversation. The person can still call and text you normally, and you can still read and reply to their messages. Blocking a contact prevents all calls and messages from reaching you entirely and is a permanent action. Hide Alerts is reversible at any time with one tap and has no effect on the other person’s ability to contact you.