Push notifications are ruining my life. Yours too, I bet. Download more than a few apps and the notifications become a non-stop, cacophonous waterfall of nonsense. Here's just part of an afternoon on my phone:
"Hi David! We found new Crown jewels and Bottle caps Pins for you!"
"Everyone's talking about Bill Nye's new book, Everything All at Once. Read a free sample."
"Alex just posted for the first time in a while."
I get notifications when an acquaintance comments on a stranger's Facebook posts, when shows I don't care about come to Netflix, and every single day at 6 PM when the crossword puzzle becomes available. Recently, I got a buzz from my close personal friends at Yelp. "We found a hot new business for you," it said. I opened the notification, on the off chance that Yelp had finally found the hot new business I've been waiting for. It did not. So I closed Yelp, stared into space for a second, and then opened Instagram. Productivity over.
Over the last few years, there's been an increasingly loud call for a re-evaluation of the relationship between humans and smartphones. For all the good that phones do, their grip on our eyes, ears, and thoughts creates real and serious problems. "I know when I take [technology] away from my kids what happens,” Tony Fadell, a former senior VP at Apple who helped invent both the iPod and the iPhone, said in a recent interview. “They literally feel like you’re tearing a piece of their person away from them. They get emotional about it, very emotional. They go through withdrawal for two to three days.”
Smartphones aren't the problem. It's all the buzzing and dinging, endlessly calling for your attention. A Deloitte study in 2016 found that people look at their phones 47 times a day on average; for young people, more like 82. Apple proudly announced in 2013 that 7.4 trillion push notifications had been pushed through its servers. The intervening four years have not reversed the trend.
There's a solution, though: Kill your notifications. Yes, really. Turn them all off. (You can leave on phone calls and text messages, if you must, but nothing else.) You'll discover that you don't miss the stream of cards filling your lockscreen, because they never existed for your benefit. They're for brands and developers, methods by which thirsty growth hackers can grab your attention anytime they want. Allowing an app to send you push notifications is like allowing a store clerk to grab you by the ear and drag you into their store. You're letting someone insert a commercial into your life anytime they want. Time to turn it off.
Push and Pull
Originally, push notifications were designed to keep you out of your phone rather than constantly drawing you in. When BlackBerry launched push email in 2003, users rejoiced: They didn't need to constantly check their inbox for fear they'd miss important messages. When email comes, BlackBerry promised, your phone will tell you. Until then, don't worry about it.
Apple made push a system-wide feature in 2008, and Google did the same soon after. Suddenly, there was a way for anyone to jump into your phone when they wanted your attention. Push notifications proved to be a marketer's dream: They're functionally impossible to tell apart from a text or email without looking, so you have to look before you can dismiss. "Push messages serve an important role in an app’s user engagement," digital marketing company Localytics wrote in 2015, "and there are no signs pointing to a decrease any time soon."
In fairness, the platforms and companies responsible for this mess have tried intermittently to clean up. The Apple Watch was initially conceived as a way to keep you off your phone, offering clever filters and even adaptive vibrations to help differentiate between notifications you care about and those you don't. Instead, the Watch turned your wrist into yet another buzzable surface, this one even harder to ignore. After years of torturing users, Apple finally made it easier to dismiss all your notifications at once. Meanwhile, Google recently simplified the process of turning off notifications for specific apps, and plans in the next version of Android to give users more control over which notifications they want to receive at all.
Facebook is excellent for keeping in touch with family and friends, but sometimes it can feel a little too in touch.
Maybe you don’t want to know every time your politically zealous college friend creates a status. Or maybe you’re a member of an extremely chatty Facebook group and you’re tired of the notifications blowing up your phone. You don't want to block them, but you do want to mute them without having to leave the group and hurt some feelings — thankfully, Facebook has made that possible.
You can turn off Facebook notifications.
- Go to 'Settings'
- Select 'Notifications'
- Edit Facebook notifications based on device
- Click the toggle buttons next to the notification type to 'Off'
If you have a Facebook marketing strategy, which includes a Facebook business page that you do want to receive notifications about, you still can. Facebook allows you to pick and choose which notifications you receive on what device.
TIP: Not sure if using Facebook for business is the right choice for you? Read reviews from peers to help you make the best decision for you.
I’ll go over the different ways to turn off Facebook notifications on mobile (skip ahead to mobile now) and desktop, so no matter where you are, you can have control over your notifications.
How to turn off Facebook notifications on desktop
Let’s say you’re working from home on your laptop and are distracted by Facebook notifications popping up in the corner every 15 minutes. That’s not great news for your productivity, and if a deadline is looming on the horizon, you’ll quickly become frustrated. Let’s turn those notifications off while you’re on your laptop!
1. In Facebook, go to 'Settings'
The easy-to-miss downward arrow in the menu bar is where you’ll find the option to navigate to ‘Settings.’
2. Click on ‘Notifications’
Once in ‘Settings,’ find ‘Notifications’ in the sidebar on the left.
3. Edit Facebook notification based on device
Choose which device you’d like to change the notifications for. In the above example, you’d want to click on ‘Desktop and Mobile’ to change the way you receive notifications while working on a laptop.
4. Click the ‘Turn Off’ button next to the notification type you want to turn off
In this example, you can turn off individual Facebook notifications such as changes to an event you joined or comments on posts you’re tagged in. You can also turn off all notifications on your desktop by clicking the very first ‘Turn Off’ button next to Chrome.
While you’re here, you might as well update your notification preferences in the other categories: on Facebook, e-mail, and text message.
Congratulations! You’ve turned off Facebook notifications on your desktop.
How to turn off Facebook notifications on mobile
If you’re tired of your phone persistently dinging with Facebook notifications, I have good news — you don’t have to keep living life like that. Smartphones are already cluttered enough as is. So let’s remove those unnecessary notifications.
1. Go to 'Settings'
On mobile, 'Settings' can be found by clicking on the menu button. It looks like three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner of your screen. Scroll down to find 'Settings,' the second-to-last option.
2. Go to 'Notification Settings'
When you click on 'Settings,' a drop-down menu will appear. Select 'Notification Settings' from that.
3. Edit your notification preferences by notification type
You'll notice a long list of notification types that you can choose to edit. If you want to turn off all push notifications, turn the first toggle button on under 'Mute Push Notifications.'
4. Hit the toggle buttons next to the notification type to turn it 'Off'
If you're annoyed with getting notifications about people you may know, click on that section. It will take you to a new page where you can edit where and if you receive those types of notifications. Switch the toggles to 'Off' or gray.
You now have control over your Facebook notifications!
With those easy steps, you have decluttered your phone and can avoid silly distractions like Aunt Mildred posting her fifth cat picture of the day in the family group page. Just make sure to check Facebook once in a while to ensure you aren't missing out on anything!
Want to become even more of a Facebook guru? Check out these cool Facebook features:
- Explore the Facebook Activity Log
- How to Change Your Name On Facebook
- Three easy ways to take back your Facebook News Feed
- How to have a Facebook Secret Conversation
Holly is a manager on the content marketing team. An avid reader and writer, Holly graduated from the University of Missouri with a dual major in Journalism and English. She firmly believes in the power of content and is constantly seeking ways to better engage and delight readers.