Guide
How to cut phone notifications.
Most buzzes are not news. They are apps asking for you back. Ten minutes in the settings can switch most of them off, batch the rest, and leave through only what you actually want to hear about.
The ten-minute version. Look at how many notifications you got last week. Switch off the apps you would not miss. Send the ones you want, but not right now, into a summary. Keep people and reminders. Then give it a week and see what, if anything, you missed.
Start with the count
On an iPhone, Screen Time shows how many notifications arrived and from which apps; on Android, notification history shows the day’s notifications, where the phone has it. The top of the list is where to start: how to check your screen time.
On an iPhone
These steps follow Apple’s guide for iOS 27.
- Switch an app off. Settings, Notifications, then the app under Notification Style, and turn off Allow Notifications. If you keep it, you can still choose where its alerts appear and turn off its badge.
- Batch the rest. Settings, Notifications, Scheduled Summary: turn it on, set the times, and pick the apps to include. For each app you can also choose Immediate Delivery or Scheduled Summary under Notification Delivery.
- Quiet the lock screen. Under Notifications, choose Count to see only the number of notifications rather than each one, and set Show Previews to When Unlocked, or switch previews off altogether.
On Android
These steps follow Google’s Android help; menus differ a little between phone makers.
- Switch an app off. Settings, Notifications, App notifications. The most recent senders come first; tap one and turn its notifications off, or only the categories you do not want.
- From the notification itself. Touch and hold a notification, tap Settings, and turn it off on the spot.
- Calm a flood. Under Settings, Notifications, General, turn on Notification cooldown: when many arrive in a short time, the phone keeps the sounds and pop-ups down. Calls, alarms, priority conversations and emergency alerts still come through.
What to keep
Messages from the people who matter to you, calendar reminders, and anything that needs you within the hour. Everything else can wait for a summary or for when you open the app. For calls you cannot miss even with the phone silenced: let family through Do Not Disturb. Why it is worth the trouble: in one experiment, simply receiving a notification disrupted attention about as much as using the phone did (what one buzz costs).
The same rule on a ring
Lychnos Ring is being designed to buzz only for what you chose: a person you named, a reminder you set, the answer you asked for. Everything else waits until you ask. It is in development.
Sources, read 4 November 2026: Apple, iPhone User Guide for iOS 27, change notification settings on iPhone; Google, Android Help, control notifications on Android. Menus change between versions and phone makers.
Questions
What is Scheduled Summary on iPhone?
An iPhone setting that gathers notifications from the apps you choose and delivers them together at times you set, instead of one by one through the day. It is under Settings, Notifications, Scheduled Summary.
What is notification cooldown on Android?
According to Google, it minimises sounds and pop-ups when many notifications arrive within a short time, for example after a flight. Calls, alarms, priority conversations and emergency alerts are exceptions. It is under Settings, Notifications, General.