How do I silence text messages from one person on Android?

Having a well-meaning but overzealous friend or family member who sends a constant barrage of text messages can be annoying and distracting. You may want to silence notifications from that person so you’re not constantly interrupted, while still receiving texts from other contacts. Android makes it easy to customize notifications on a per-contact basis, so you can mute a conversation thread or adjust notifications from a specific sender without blocking them entirely.

In this guide, we’ll explore the different methods available on Android to silence text message notifications from just one person. Whether you want to mute them temporarily or restrict all notifications, there are various options to suit your needs. With a few quick settings adjustments, you can take control of your notifications and stop a single over-eager texter from continuously disrupting you.

Check Notification Settings

One way to silence text messages from a specific person on Android is by adjusting the notification settings. Go to Settings > Notifications and look for the messaging app you use, such as Messages or WhatsApp. Tap on the app and you’ll see a list of conversations. Find the conversation with the person you want to silence. Tap on it and uncheck ‘Show notifications’ to disable notifications for just that person.

This will prevent you from getting notified about new messages from that contact. You can still open the conversation manually to view messages, but you won’t receive sound, vibration or banner notifications. It mutes notifications from only that particular conversation while leaving others unaffected.

For step-by-step instructions, see this guide: How to Disable or Enable Notifications for a Specific Contact Using Android Messages

Mute Conversations

One easy way to silence notifications from a particular person is to mute the conversation with them in your messaging app. Here are the steps:

1. Open your Android messaging app, like the Messages app.
2. Locate the conversation with the person you want to mute.
3. Long press on the conversation.
4. In the menu that pops up, select “Mute conversation” or “Mute notifications.”

This will stop all notifications from that conversation so you won’t get interrupted with new messages from that person. You can unmute the conversation at any time to resume notifications.

According to Google Support, muting conversations is a straightforward way to silence individual text conversations on Android.

Block the Sender

One of the easiest ways to silence text messages from a specific person on Android is to block their number directly from your text messaging app. This will prevent any future messages from that number from coming through.

To block a number in the default Messages app on Android:

1. Open the Messages app and go to your conversation with the contact you want to block.
2. Tap on the name or number at the top of the conversation.
3. In the contact details, look for the option to block the contact and tap on it. On many Android devices this will say “Block” or “Block contact”.

Once you block a number, their messages will no longer show up in your Messages app. You also won’t receive any notifications from blocked contacts. According to The Verge, blocking a number on Android is fairly permanent and can only be undone if the number is unblocked from your block list in the Phone app or Contacts.

Restrict Notifications

You can restrict notifications from a specific person by going into the app’s notification settings and turning off notifications just for that person. Here’s how to do it:

Go to Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps. Find the app you want to restrict (such as Messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc). Tap the app.

Tap Notifications. From here, you’ll see a list of all the notification options for that app. Find the option for that specific conversation or contact and toggle it off. For example, in Android Messages you can tap “Conversations” and then disable notifications for just that person.

This will disable notifications from that conversation/contact only. You’ll still get notifications from other people and conversations in that app. So it’s a handy way to silence just that one annoying person!

For more details, check out this guide from Google.

Use Do Not Disturb

One of the easiest ways to silence text messages from a specific person on Android is to use the built-in Do Not Disturb feature. This allows you to set schedules for when you want to mute notifications.

To set up Do Not Disturb schedules on Android (source):

1. Open the Settings app and tap Sound & vibration > Do Not Disturb.
2. Tap Schedules.
3. Tap Add schedule.
4. Choose the days and times you want Do Not Disturb to be on.
5. Under People, tap All contacts to only silence notifications from certain contacts during the schedule.
6. Search for and select the contact you want to silence.
7. Tap Done.

With this schedule enabled, you will not receive any notifications from that chosen contact during the scheduled time. You can set up multiple schedules to customize when each person’s notifications should be muted.

Try a Third Party App

If the built-in messaging app doesn’t allow you to mute specific conversations, you can try using a third party messaging app. Apps like Textra provide more granular control over notifications. With Textra, you can mute specific conversations for a custom time period. You can also schedule when notifications will be muted, like muting a chat during your sleep hours.

The advantage of using a third party app like Textra is getting advanced muting and scheduling options not available in the stock messaging app. The downside is having to move your conversations over to a new app. But for frequent texters that get overwhelmed by notifications, Textra provides valuable tools to mute and manage conversations.

Change Notifications

One way to silence notifications from a specific person is to customize the notification settings for that conversation. Android allows you to change the sound, vibration, and pop-up settings for notifications on an app-by-app or conversation-by-conversation basis.

To customize notifications for a specific conversation in the Messages app:

1. Open the Messages app and select the conversation you want to customize.
2. Tap and hold on the conversation.
3. Tap the “i” icon in the top right to open the conversation details.
4. Tap “Custom notifications.”
5. From here you can:
   – Select a custom notification sound for this conversation.
   – Enable or disable vibration.
   
   – Disable all notification dots and pop-ups.

This will override your general notification settings and allow you to silence this specific conversation. You can customize notifications similarly for individual conversations in other messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc. See the Android developer guide on creating custom notification layouts for more details.

Clear Notifications

One of the easiest ways to clear notifications on Android is to simply swipe them away. When you receive a notification, you can swipe left or right on it to dismiss it. This clears the notification without having to open the app.

To clear all notifications at once, you can scroll to the very bottom of your notification shade and tap the “Clear all” button. This will dismiss all notifications and leave your shade empty.

Swiping away notifications or using the “Clear all” button are quick and simple ways to clear notifications without interacting with the app. This can help reduce distractions and clean up your notification shade (Source).

Conclusion

In summary, there are a variety of methods you can use to silence text messages from a specific person on Android. The easiest options are to mute conversations or block the sender entirely in your messaging app settings. You can also restrict notifications so you don’t get alerts for that person’s messages. Using Do Not Disturb is another simple way to pause notifications during certain times or events. For more customization, try using a third party app or changing notification settings on Android. Clearing all notifications for that person can also remove past alerts. The best approach depends on your specific needs and preferences for managing disruptive messages. Hopefully one of these techniques will help you take control over your inbox and reduce distractions.