How do I adjust the volume on my notifications?

What are Notifications?

Notifications are alerts or messages that pop up on your device to notify you of new information or events. They provide updates on things like new emails, text messages, app updates, calendar events, and more. According to Merriam-Webster, a notification is “the act of notifying” or “a notice, announcement, or warning.”

On smartphones, tablets, computers, and other devices, notifications appear as banners, pop-ups, or icons. They are triggered by apps, services, and the device’s operating system. For example, you may receive a notification when you get a new email, text, or app alert. The notification typically displays a preview of the content, like the sender and first few words of the message.

Notifications are designed to grab your attention and provide useful, timely information. Without them, you’d have to manually open each app to check for new content. Notifications streamline this process by proactively delivering updates and alerts from across your device’s apps and services.

Why adjust notification volume?

There are several benefits to adjusting the volume on your notifications:

Minimize disruptions. Notifications can be distracting and disruptive if they are too loud or go off too frequently. Adjusting the volume allows you to minimize disruptions so you can stay focused on important tasks.

Customize experience. People have different preferences when it comes to notification sounds and volume. Customizing the volume allows you to tailor the experience to your needs and preferences.

Focus better. Turning down the volume can help you avoid getting startled or distracted by notifications. This allows you to focus better on your work or activities.

Avoid annoying others. Loud notification sounds can disrupt or annoy people around you. Adjusting the volume prevents this.

Get proper rest. Loud notifications can disturb your sleep. Turning down the volume helps ensure you get uninterrupted rest.

Personalize priorities. Setting custom volumes for different apps lets you assign priority levels. For example, you may want a softer volume for social media but louder for texts or calls.

Gain more control. Overall, adjusting notification volume gives you more control over your device experience, allowing you to customize it to best suit your needs.

Check notification settings

To manage your notification settings on an iPhone, the first step is to open the Settings app. From the home screen, tap the Settings icon to launch the app.

Once in Settings, scroll down and select “Notifications” to view and adjust the notification settings. The Notifications settings screen displays a list of all apps installed on your iPhone that use notifications.

To adjust notifications for a specific app, tap the app name. This will open a screen with customizable notification settings for that particular app. For example, you can toggle notifications on or off, allow notifications to display on the lock screen, choose notification sounds, and enable or disable notification badges for the app icon.

Some key settings to check include:

Allow Notifications – Turn notifications on or off for the app.
Show in Notification Center – Enable/disable notifications in the Notification Center.
Sounds – Pick a custom sound for notifications from this app.

Badge App Icon – Toggle on to show a notification badge on the app icon.

Additionally, you can configure notification settings globally from the main Notifications screen. This includes options like setting a scheduled summary, allowing time sensitive notifications, and more. For detailed steps on managing all notification options in iOS, see Apple’s support guide here: Change notification settings on iPhone.

Adjust notification volume

Notification volume can be adjusted on both iOS and Android devices. This allows you to set a preferred volume level for app notifications that is separate from your device’s overall ringer volume.

Change notification volume on iOS

To adjust notification volume on an iPhone or iPad running iOS 15 or later:

Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics.
Under Ringers and Alerts, drag the slider left or right to adjust the notification volume as desired. Lower towards left for quieter notifications, higher towards right for louder.

You can toggle off the “Change with Buttons” switch to prevent the physical volume buttons from affecting notification volume.

To set custom notification tones for individual apps on iOS:

Go to Settings > Notifications.

Select the app.
Tap Sounds.
Choose a sound or select None to mute.

See Apple’s support guide for more details: Change message notifications on iPhone.

Change notification volume on Android

For Android devices running Android 9 or later:

Open Settings > Sound.

Drag the Media volume slider to adjust notification volume lower or higher as desired.
Tap Advanced > Individual app volumes to set custom notification tones for each app.

On Android 8 or earlier:

Go to Settings > Sound > App notifications.
Adjust Show notifications slider for desired volume.
Tap an app to customize tones.

Refer to your device manufacturer’s support site for exact steps. Muting notifications or using Do Not Disturb mode are other options for managing notification sounds.

Mute Notifications

You can mute notifications on your iPhone in several ways to silence incoming alerts when you don’t want to be disturbed. Muting notifications is a quick and easy way to turn off sounds and banners from apps and contacts.

To mute notifications from an individual app, open the Settings app and tap Notifications. Find the app you want to mute and toggle off the Allow Notifications switch. This will stop all notifications from that app.

You can also mute notifications from specific contacts. Open the Contacts app, select the contact you want to mute, tap Edit in the upper-right corner, then toggle off Text Tone and New Voicemail. This will mute notifications from that contact in Phone, Messages, and other apps.

To mute all notifications quickly, you can access Control Center by swiping down from the top-right corner of the screen (on devices with Face ID) or swiping up from the bottom (on devices with Touch ID). Tap the bell icon, then select from the options to mute for 1 hour, until this evening, or indefinitely until turned back on. You can also set your device to Do Not Disturb here.

For more fine-tuned control, the Focus feature in iOS 15 allows you to create custom profiles like Do Not Disturb that mute alerts from anyone except your chosen allowlist of contacts or apps. This lets you mute notifications in specific situations like bedtime, work, or driving without missing anything urgent.

According to Beebom, muting notifications is an easy way to minimize distractions when you need to concentrate or just want some peace and quiet. With so many options, you can silence your iPhone to suit your needs.

Set Notification Sounds

You can customize the notification sounds for individual apps on your iPhone. Here are the steps:

Open the Settings app and tap Notifications.

Scroll down and select the app you want to change the notification sound for.
Tap Sounds.
Select a new sound from the available options or tap None to mute notifications from this app.

You can also toggle off the Vibrate option if you don’t want notifications to vibrate.
Tap Back when you are done customizing the sounds.

The notification sounds are different for each app, allowing you to identify which app is sending you a notification without having to look at your phone. Custom notification sounds for different apps can help you focus on the most important notifications.

For more information, see the Apple Support guide on changing notification sounds.

Manage notification badges

Notification badges are small numbers or icons that appear on app icons to indicate there are new or unread notifications for that app. For example, the Messages app may display a red bubble with a number to show how many unread messages you have.

Badges help provide a quick visual indication that an app has pending notifications, without you needing to open the app. They show on the app icons on the iPhone home screen and within the app switcher screen.

You can control whether or not apps display badges for their notifications. To manage notification badges:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

2. Tap on Notifications.

3. Tap on the app you want to manage badges for.

4. Toggle “Badge App Icon” on or off.

Turning this setting off will prevent the app from displaying badge icons with numbers for its notifications. The setting is on by default for most apps.

In addition to the per-app settings, you can disable notification badges for all apps by toggling off “Allow Notifications” within the main Notifications settings page. This will remove all badges from your home screen (source).

Set notification priorities

You can control which app notifications appear at the top of your Notification Center on your iPhone. This allows you to prioritize important apps so that you don’t miss critical alerts.

To set notification priorities:

Go to Settings > Notifications
Tap the app you want to prioritize
Toggle on “Priority”

With Priority enabled, that app’s alerts will always appear at the top of your Notification Center above other apps’ alerts. This is useful for prioritizing communication apps, calendar alerts, task managers, and other productivity apps you rely on.

You can set Priority on multiple apps – just repeat the steps above. Any apps with Priority enabled will float to the top. Over time, you can fine-tune which apps should take priority based on your needs.

Schedule Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb is a handy iPhone feature that allows you to disable notifications for set periods of time. This can be useful when you need to focus or don’t want to be disturbed.

To schedule Do Not Disturb on your iPhone (source):

Go to the Settings app and tap Focus.
Tap Do Not Disturb.

Turn on Scheduled and select your scheduled hours.

With Scheduled turned on, Do Not Disturb will automatically turn on and off during the times you select. This disables all notifications so you won’t be interrupted.

You can customize which notifications are allowed while Do Not Disturb is scheduled. Emergency and time-sensitive notifications may still come through depending on your settings.

Other notification settings

Apple provides additional granular control over notifications in iOS through the Advanced settings. Here users can customize notification behavior such as banners and previews on the lock screen.

To access the Advanced settings, open the Settings app, go to Notifications, and scroll down to the bottom of the list. Tap on the app you want to adjust, and scroll down to see the Advanced options.

The most significant options here determine whether notifications from that app will briefly appear as a banner at the top of the screen or show previews with content on the lock screen. Disabling notifications on the lock screen may be useful when you want to maintain privacy in public but still receive alerts on your iOS device.

Some other options under Advanced settings:

Allow notifications to override Do Not Disturb
Enable Show in History to see recent notifications when you access Notification Center

Disable Show on Lock Screen to hide banners and previews on the lock screen
Turn off Show Previews to ensure banners don’t show notification details
Customize notification sounds for that specific app rather than the global notification sound

By adjusting these advanced options, iOS users can tailor notifications to suit their needs and preferences. For example, you can set important apps like Messages and Phone to override Do Not Disturb while silencing non-critical apps.