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The fastest way to turn off one app’s Apple Watch notifications
- Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone.
- Tap My Watch.
- Tap Notifications.
- Select the app.
- Tap Custom, if it appears.
- Select Notifications Off.
This turns off that app’s notifications on the Apple Watch. It does not switch off the app’s notification permission in iPhone Settings > Notifications, so the iPhone can continue receiving its alerts. Apple notes that the available controls vary by app. Apple’s notification guide lists options including Allow Notifications, Send to Notification Center, and Notifications Off.
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If the app appears under “Mirror iPhone Alerts From”
Many third-party apps do not provide a full custom notification menu in the Watch app. For apps such as messaging, social, work, shopping, and email services:
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- Go to My Watch > Notifications.
- Scroll to Mirror iPhone Alerts From.
- Turn off the switch beside the app.
The app remains enabled in the iPhone’s notification settings, but its mirrored iPhone alerts no longer appear as active alerts on the watch. Apple’s current menu labels can vary slightly with iOS, watchOS, app type, region, and language.
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- A FULL-FEATURED HEALTH TRACKER—Apple Watch Series 11 gives you invaluable insights about your body, right from your wrist. Take an ECG anytime* and get alerts for a high and low heart rate or an irregular rhythm*—so you can stay closer to your heart. You can also view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app* and be notified of possible sleep apnea.*
- KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
- GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
- SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.
Choose the right level of notification control
| Setting | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications Off | Stops that app’s notifications from being delivered as Apple Watch notifications. | You do not want the app to alert on the watch. |
| Send to Notification Center | Keeps the notification available in the watch’s Notification Center without actively alerting you. | You want to review it manually later, without a sound, vibration, or immediate alert. |
| Silent Mode | Silences watch alerts more broadly while allowing notifications to remain visible. | You need temporary silence for many apps. |
| Focus | Suppresses interruptions according to a Focus schedule or set of rules. | You want different behavior during sleep, work, driving, exercise, or personal time. |
For an app with custom controls, choose Send to Notification Center rather than Notifications Off if you want to retain a notification record on the watch without an active alert. Sound and haptic settings can also be adjusted separately when the problem is presentation rather than delivery.
Tap to Show Full Notification addresses privacy—it hides notification details until you tap—rather than stopping the alert itself.
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- A FULL-FEATURED HEALTH TRACKER—Apple Watch Series 11 gives you invaluable insights about your body, right from your wrist. Take an ECG anytime* and get alerts for a high and low heart rate or an irregular rhythm*—so you can stay closer to your heart. You can also view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app* and be notified of possible sleep apnea.*
- KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
- GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
- SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.
Turn off an alert directly from Apple Watch
If a notification has already arrived, you can often change that app’s watch behavior without opening the iPhone:
- Open Notification Center by touching and holding the top of the watch face, then swiping down.
- Swipe left on the notification.
- Tap More.
- Choose the available mute or disable option.
Depending on the app, Apple says the choices may include muting notifications for one hour, muting them for the rest of the day, or turning them off completely. This is a convenient shortcut, but the available choices are app-dependent; use the Watch app when you need to verify the permanent setting.
Why the notification still appears on your iPhone
That is normally the expected result. Apple’s notification system generally routes an alert to either the iPhone or Apple Watch rather than presenting the same active alert on both at once:
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- A GREAT FITNESS TRACKER—SE 3 can track your workouts in a healthy number of ways—from running and strength training to simply achieving your 10K steps a day. With real-time metrics and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone,* you’ll hit your goals like never before.
- KEEP HELP CLOSE AT HAND—SE 3 is a smartwatch that can detect a hard fall or severe car crash and automatically help connect you to emergency services and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- WOMEN’S HEALTH INSIGHTS—SE 3 has advanced sensors that track your wrist temperature while you sleep. With this smartwatch, you can log your periods and symptoms, get period predictions, and get notified of cycle deviations.*
- GREAT BATTERY LIFE AND FASTER CHARGING—Enjoy a smartwatch with all-day, 18-hour battery life* from sunup to sundown. Then charge up to twice as fast as SE 2* and get up to 8 hours of battery in just 15 minutes.*
- When the iPhone is unlocked, the notification normally appears on the iPhone.
- When the iPhone is locked or asleep, it normally appears on the Apple Watch—unless the watch is locked.
This routing is not an indication that the watch setting failed. In this configuration, the iPhone remains the device allowed to notify you, while the selected app is prevented from alerting on the watch. The behavior can differ for particular system, health, safety, or watch-only alerts.
Test the setting correctly
To check whether the change worked, leave the Apple Watch unlocked, lock or put the iPhone to sleep, and generate a new notification from the selected app. A previously delivered alert may still be present in Notification Center, so testing with a new notification gives a clearer result.
Troubleshooting
The app is missing
- Check farther down the page under Mirror iPhone Alerts From.
- Look for the app-specific section as well as the mirrored-app list.
- Confirm that the app has generated a notification recently.
- Make sure you are using the Watch app, not the iPhone’s notification settings.
- Confirm that the watch is paired and connected.
Reopen the Watch app and send a new test notification. If the setting still does not appear or synchronize, restart both devices. Updating iOS, watchOS, and the app may also resolve an interface or synchronization problem, although these steps are not guaranteed fixes.
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- GET SMARTER HEALTH INSIGHTS—Apple Watch SE 3 is an advanced health tracker that helps you better understand your body. The smartwatch sends alerts for an irregular heart rhythm, or an unusually high or low heart rate.* You can view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app,* track your sleep score, and get sleep apnea notifications.*
- A GREAT FITNESS TRACKER—SE 3 can track your workouts in a healthy number of ways—from running and strength training to simply achieving your 10K steps a day. With real-time metrics and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone,* you’ll hit your goals like never before.
- KEEP HELP CLOSE AT HAND—SE 3 is a smartwatch that can detect a hard fall or severe car crash and automatically help connect you to emergency services and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- WOMEN’S HEALTH INSIGHTS—SE 3 has advanced sensors that track your wrist temperature while you sleep. With this smartwatch, you can log your periods and symptoms, get period predictions, and get notified of cycle deviations.*
- GREAT BATTERY LIFE AND FASTER CHARGING—Enjoy a smartwatch with all-day, 18-hour battery life* from sunup to sundown. Then charge up to twice as fast as SE 2* and get up to 8 hours of battery in just 15 minutes.*
The watch still vibrates
First check that you disabled the correct app in the correct section. The vibration may come from another app, a system alert, a Focus configuration, or a watch-only feature such as a health or noise-related alert. Also check whether you muted only sounds while leaving haptic alerts enabled.
Existing notifications remain on the watch
Turning off future watch notifications does not necessarily clear alerts already stored in Notification Center. Clear existing alerts separately if needed. Be careful when opening or dismissing them: Apple says that reading or dismissing a notification on Apple Watch can also dismiss it from the iPhone.
The Watch app setting preserves the iPhone app’s notification permission, but it cannot preserve the state of an existing notification after you interact with that notification on the watch.
Best Value
- A FULL-FEATURED HEALTH TRACKER—Apple Watch Series 11 gives you invaluable insights about your body, right from your wrist. Take an ECG anytime* and get alerts for a high and low heart rate or an irregular rhythm*—so you can stay closer to your heart. You can also view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app* and be notified of possible sleep apnea.*
- KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
- GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
- SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
- A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.
Messages and Phone look different
Messages, Phone, Calendar, Mail, Reminders, Activity or Fitness, and other Apple apps may expose different controls from third-party apps. Select the app under Watch > My Watch > Notifications, choose Custom when available, and select the option that disables its watch alerts. Do not assume that the menus are identical across watchOS releases.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Turn the app’s Apple Watch notifications back on
Open Watch > My Watch > Notifications, select the app, and turn its notifications back on. Depending on how the app is listed, this may mean choosing Allow Notifications in its custom controls or re-enabling its switch under Mirror iPhone Alerts From. This changes the watch-side setting; it does not require changing the app’s iPhone notification permission.
Can you turn off every Apple Watch notification at once?
There is not a single universal per-app setting that reliably disables every Apple Watch notification type. For a lasting change, configure apps individually using Custom > Notifications Off or the switch under Mirror iPhone Alerts From. For temporary broad suppression, use Silent Mode or a suitable Focus mode. These broader controls silence or suppress interruptions, but they are not the same as permanently disabling delivery for every app.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesApple’s notification documentation explains the current routing and app-specific controls. Apple’s developer guidance also describes mirrored iPhone notification settings as the default behavior for apps available on both devices, with watch-specific controls managed through the Watch app: Managing notifications.
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