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How to Turn Off Push Notifications on Your Computer and Smartphone

How to Turn Off Push Notifications on Your Computer and Smartphone

By Rohan Naravane | Updated: 17 January 2017 08:01 IST

Highlights

Push notifications are meant to inform users of new happenings
Marketeers use these to send promotional content to their users
They can get in the way of regular computer or phone usage

Push notifications used to be the preserve of smartphones, but today your PC is packed with them too, as websites and social networks use your browser to send helpful little pop-ups. This can be very useful by helping you stay on top of all the incoming messages and news, without having to leave the page you are on.

But we are living in the times of notification overload, and as simple as opting in for these promotional notifications may be, opting out may not always be as straightforward. In case you are feeling overwhelmed, here are the ways to turn off those pesky notifications, from all popular browsers and platforms.

On computers
You can remove notifications access from sites that spam you with too many messages, or aren't useful anymore. This way, you can trim the list down to only the important ones. This is what you have to do.

How to disable notifications for Chrome on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Click the three dot button on the right corner of the address bar
Click on Settings
Scroll down and click on Show Advanced Settings
Under Privacy, Click Content Settings
Scroll to Notifications and click Manage Exceptions
On this page, Block the websites from whom you don’t want to receive notifications.

How to disable notifications for Firefox on Windows, Mac and Linux

Click the three-line icon next to the address bar
Click Preferences
Click Content
Click Notifications
In this submenu, click Choose
Select the site you want to remove, and click Remove Site.

How to disable notifications for Safari on Mac

In the menu bar, go to Safari
Click Preferences
Click Notifications
Choose Deny for the sites you don’t want to receive notifications from.

How to disable notifications for Microsoft Edge browser on Windows

Click the three dot menu next to the address bar
Go to Settings
Go to Advanced Settings
Click Notifications
Click Manage
Here, you can toggle which sites can and can't send you push notifications.

How to disable notifications on Opera for Windows, Mac and Linux

Go to Preferences
Click Websites
Click Notifications
Click Manage Exceptions
Click Behaviour
Select Block for sites where you want to turn the notifications off.

On Android
Just like on the PC, on the phone too your Web browser can send you notifications. Cutting it out is just as simple.

How to disable notifications for Chrome on Android

Tap on the three dot button
Go to Settings
Go to Site Settings
Go to Notifications
Here, you can see which ones are allowed, and block them. Tap on an allowed item, tap on Notifications and choose Block, to stop it from sending you notifications.

How to disable notifications for Opera on Android

Tap on the Opera button
Go to Settings
Go to Advanced
Go to Site Settings
Go to Notifications
Under Allowed, tap on the site you want to disable, and choose Denied

Push notifications from apps
Making things worse on phones, just about every app wants to send you a barrage of notifications through the day. It can get really annoying, but you can easily get it under control. There are two ways to stop apps from sending you push notifications. Although not a common occurrence, some apps do offer a switch to turn off promotional notifications from within the app settings, so you could check within the individual app first. For example, Cleartrip lets you turn off notifications in its settings. UC Browser, which doesn't support push notifications for websites, does send a lot of them on its own. However, you can turn them off in Settings. If that’s not an option, then these are the steps you have to follow. How to disable notifications on Android 6.0 Marshmallow or above

Go to Settings
Go to Apps
Scroll to the app and tap on it
Go to Notifications
Turn off Allow Notifications

You can also stop them by pressing-and-holding a notification in the Notification tray to jump into the menu, which lets you turn notifications off too. How to disable notifications on Android 5.0 Lollipop or below

Go to Settings
Go to Apps
Scroll to the app and tap on it
Uncheck the Allow Notifications checkbox.

How to disable notifications on iPhone

Go to Settings
Go to Notifications
Select the app
Turn off Allow Notifications

Of course, the problem is that turning off app notifications means the app can’t send you anything, even a notification that may be important. Meaning, say if someone sends you money on a wallet app, you won’t get the app notification if you’ve turned notifications off entirely. It will also deprecate some functionality - for instance in Android, if you turn off notifications on a music streaming app, it could also stop showing you the music playback controls in the pull-down drawer. These are some of the things to keep in mind while trying to tame excessive notifications.

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Further reading: Push Notifications, Notifications, Marketing, Chrome, Windows, Mac, Linux, Opera, UC Browser, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Android, iOS