Are you getting too many push no­ti­fi­ca­tions? Maybe even from apps where you never con­scious­ly activated no­ti­fi­ca­tions? Keep reading to find out how to turn off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions on your phone or in your browser.

A brief guide on how to stop push no­ti­fi­ca­tions

In your browser

  1. Search for “No­ti­fi­ca­tions” or “Push No­ti­fi­ca­tions” in your browser settings.
  2. Remove the websites that you don’t want to receive no­ti­fi­ca­tions from.

For Android apps

  1. Enter “Apps” in the settings.
  2. Change the no­ti­fi­ca­tion settings for the app in question.

For iOS apps

  1. Search for “No­ti­fi­ca­tions” in the settings.
  2. Change the no­ti­fi­ca­tion settings for the app in question.

What are push no­ti­fi­ca­tions?

Push no­ti­fi­ca­tions provide you with new in­for­ma­tion or messages from apps and websites. They often take the form of a short text on the lock screen of your smart­phone. Push no­ti­fi­ca­tions are usually ac­com­pa­nied by a sound and/or vibration, so that you’re aware of their arrival.

Why turn off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions?

Sta­tis­tics show that in 2021, users had an average of 40 apps on their smart­phones, including messaging services, shopping apps, games, lists, exercise apps, and more.

If you turn on push no­ti­fi­ca­tions for every app, you likely won’t be able to keep track of all the updates. This is the main reason why you might want to turn off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions for some apps.

How to stop push no­ti­fi­ca­tions in your browser

Turning off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions is rel­a­tive­ly simple. In browsers, push no­ti­fi­ca­tions are usually tied to specific websites. Some websites ask you on your first visit whether you want to get updates from them in the form of push no­ti­fi­ca­tions. You might have ac­ci­den­tal­ly clicked yes or changed your mind about who you want updates from.

So how to disable these push no­ti­fi­ca­tions? For Chrome, simply follow these steps:

  1. First go to your browser’s settings.
  2. Navigate to the “Privacy and security” menu.
  3. Then click on “Site Settings”.
Image: Screenshot of settings in the “Privacy and security” menu in Chrome
Under “Site Settings”, you can change your no­ti­fi­ca­tion pref­er­ences.
  1. Once you’re in Site Settings, click on “No­ti­fi­ca­tions”. This is where you can de­ac­ti­vate push no­ti­fi­ca­tions for certain sites or all sites.
Image: Screenshot of settings in the “Site Settings” menu in Chrome
Under “No­ti­fi­ca­tions”, you can activate and de­ac­ti­vate push no­ti­fi­ca­tions for different websites.
  1. The websites that are and aren’t allowed to send you no­ti­fi­ca­tions are listed on this page. Click on the three dots to the right of the website names to remove the sites that you’d no longer like to receive no­ti­fi­ca­tions from. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can add websites to the list of sites that aren’t allowed to send no­ti­fi­ca­tions using the “Add” button.
Image: Screenshot of “Notifications” page in the settings in Chrome
At the bottom of the page, you can remove the websites that you’d no longer like to receive no­ti­fi­ca­tions from.

JavaScript is required for push no­ti­fi­ca­tions to work in the browser. When you de­ac­ti­vate JavaScript, push no­ti­fi­ca­tions are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly disabled.

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How to turn off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions in apps

Turning off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions in Android

On Android smart­phones, you’ll have to turn off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions app by app. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to the settings in your phone.
  2. Once you’re in the settings, look for “Apps”.
  3. Choose the app that you’d like to de­ac­ti­vate no­ti­fi­ca­tions for.
  4. Open the “App settings”, and then go to “No­ti­fi­ca­tions”.
  5. Use the toggle at the top of the screen to activate or de­ac­ti­vate push no­ti­fi­ca­tions for the app. If you want to de­ac­ti­vate, the button should be on the left.
Image: Three screenshots of app settings in Android
In Android, you can de­ac­ti­vate push no­ti­fi­ca­tions in each app’s settings.

Turning off push no­ti­fi­ca­tions in iOS

On Apple devices, you can turn off no­ti­fi­ca­tions in the device’s settings under “No­ti­fi­ca­tions”. Do as follows:

  1. Go to the settings on your device.
  2. Then navigate to the menu item “No­ti­fi­ca­tions”.
  3. Choose the relevant app from the list under “No­ti­fi­ca­tion Style”.
  4. At the top of the screen, you’ll see a toggle labeled “Allow No­ti­fi­ca­tions”. Tap on the toggle to de­ac­ti­vate no­ti­fi­ca­tions. If no­ti­fi­ca­tions are de­ac­ti­vat­ed, the button should now be on the left.
Image: Three screenshots of app settings in iOS
You can manage your push no­ti­fi­ca­tion settings under “No­ti­fi­ca­tions”.

In both Android and iOS, you can also choose how you would like to be alerted to no­ti­fi­ca­tions. This includes whether no­ti­fi­ca­tions are shown on your lock screen, whether they’re ac­com­pa­nied by sounds, and more.

How can I protect my privacy?

In general, apps use a variety data to send push no­ti­fi­ca­tions, including cookies and sometimes even location data.

Since no­ti­fi­ca­tions often entail saving and pro­cess­ing cookies, you should be sure to delete cookies regularly and always double check which per­mis­sions you’ve granted to apps. You can also disable cookies in your browser across the board to prevent your data from being saved.

There are also a number of apps and browser ex­ten­sions that anonymize your browser activity, thus making it harder for websites to ac­cu­mu­late targeted data about what you’re doing online. Find out more in our article “What is cyber security?”.

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