Mac notifications settings: take back control of the interruptions
Every app on your Mac wants your attention, and by default macOS lets most of them have it — a badge here, a banner there, a sound for good measure. The Mac notifications settings are more granular than most people realize, and ten minutes in the right panel is the difference between a machine that interrupts you constantly and one that speaks up only when it matters. This guide walks the whole system on macOS Tahoe (26): where the settings live, what each one does, and a sane default to aim for.
Where Mac notifications settings live
Everything starts in one place:
- Open System Settings (Apple menu → System Settings).
- Click Notifications in the sidebar.
The panel has two halves. The top, Notification Center, holds the global rules that apply to every app. Below it, Application Notifications lists each app individually. Fix the global behavior first, then go app by app.
One quirk worth knowing: an app won't appear in the list until it has asked to send you a notification at least once. If an app is missing, launch it and let it trigger a notification, then come back.
The global settings (Notification Center)
At the top of the Notifications panel you'll find rules that govern the whole system:
- Show previews — whether the content of a notification is visible before you unlock. Choose Always, When Unlocked, or Never. "When Unlocked" is the sensible privacy default: you see who messaged you only when you're sitting at the Mac, not when it's on a desk in a meeting room.
- Display options — toggles for whether notifications show while the display is asleep, while it's locked, and while you're mirroring or sharing the screen. That last one is the setting that saves you from a personal text popping up mid-presentation — turn off "Allow notifications when mirroring or sharing the display."
- Summarize notifications — if you've turned on Apple Intelligence, macOS can bundle a stack of notifications into a short summary. Useful for group chats; less so for anything where the exact wording matters.
Per-app settings: the part that actually cuts the noise
This is where the real work happens. Click any app under Application Notifications and you get a full set of controls. The most important one is the Allow Notifications toggle at the top — if an app doesn't genuinely need to interrupt you, turn it off entirely and move on. Be ruthless here; most apps do not deserve a live channel to your attention.
For the apps you keep on, the key setting is the alert style:
| Alert style | What it does | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| None | No banner or alert; the notification only lands quietly in Notification Center | Low-priority apps you'll check on your own schedule |
| Banners | Appears in the top-right corner, then disappears on its own | Most apps — you see it, it doesn't demand action |
| Alerts | Stays on screen until you dismiss it | The rare app where you must not miss a message |
Banners are the right default for almost everything. Reserve Alerts for the one or two things you genuinely cannot miss, and set everything casual to None so it collects silently.
The other per-app options:
- Show in Notification Center — keep the notification in the pull-out panel even if you don't want a banner.
- Show on Lock Screen — whether it appears before you log in.
- Badge app icon — the little red count on the Dock icon. Turning this off for chat and email apps alone removes a huge amount of ambient pressure.
- Play sound for notifications — silence the ones that don't need a chime.
- Notification grouping — how multiple notifications from one app stack: Automatic (macOS groups by thread), By App (one pile per app), or Off (every notification separate). "Automatic" keeps a busy group chat from becoming twenty rows.
- Time Sensitive notifications — allow an app to break through Do Not Disturb for things it deems urgent. Leave this on only for apps you trust to use it sparingly.
Silence everything at once: Do Not Disturb and Focus
Per-app tuning handles the steady state. For "I need quiet right now," use Do Not Disturb: open Control Center (the toggles icon in the menu bar), click Focus, and switch it on. Every notification is held until you turn it off, except apps and people you've explicitly allowed through.
Do Not Disturb is one of several Focus modes, and Focus is worth setting up properly if interruptions are a real problem — you can build a "Work" Focus that only lets work apps through, schedule it, and sync it across devices. We cover that end to end in the Mac Focus mode guide. Think of it this way: the Notifications panel decides what's allowed in general, and Focus decides what's allowed right now.
A sane default to aim for
If you want a starting point rather than a philosophy, this setup works for most people:
- Show previews: When Unlocked.
- Off when mirroring or sharing the display.
- Messages / calls: Banners (or Alerts if you're on call), sound on.
- Email: Banners, badge off, sound off — check it on your schedule, not its.
- Chat (Slack, etc.): Banners, grouping Automatic, Time Sensitive off.
- Everything else (games, shopping, "news," social): Allow Notifications off. If it's not urgent and not something you'd open on your own, it doesn't get a banner.
That single pass — turning off the apps that never earned the right to interrupt — does more for focus than any productivity app.
When the noise isn't notifications
Taming notifications removes the interruptions the system pushes at you. The other big source of friction is self-inflicted: a screen full of windows you have to dig through, and a Dock you mouse to constantly. Once your notifications are quiet, that's usually the next thing worth fixing — a keyboard-first way to get to the right window with Let's Switch (flip through your recent windows with Option-Tab, no hunting) and to place windows with Let's Tile (snap into a visible grid in a couple of keystrokes). Both live in the menu bar, send you no notifications of their own, and are pay-once with no tracking — the quiet-by-design end of the same problem.
Frequently asked questions
Where are notification settings on a Mac? System Settings → Notifications. The top section sets global rules; the list below holds per-app controls.
How do I stop an app from sending notifications entirely? Click the app under Application Notifications and turn off Allow Notifications. It'll go completely silent — no banner, no badge, no sound.
Why doesn't my app show up in Notifications settings? macOS only lists an app once it has requested to send a notification. Open the app, let it trigger one, then return to System Settings.
What's the difference between Banners and Alerts? Banners appear briefly in the corner and disappear on their own. Alerts stay on screen until you dismiss them — more intrusive, so reserve them for things you can't miss.
How do I silence all notifications temporarily? Turn on Do Not Disturb from Control Center → Focus. It holds everything until you turn it off, except the apps and people you allow through.
Do notification summaries need Apple Intelligence? Yes — the Summarize Notifications option only appears when Apple Intelligence is enabled.
Ten minutes here pays off every day afterward. Turn off what never deserved to interrupt you, set banners as the default, and lean on Do Not Disturb when you need silence on demand. For the rest of the keyboard-first setup, see our other Mac productivity guides.