Your Mac's notification chimes don't have to interrupt your music, meetings, or quiet afternoons. You can switch off the sounds while keeping visual alerts, or use Do Not Disturb for a temporary break. Start with the app that's making the noise.
Turn off sounds for individual apps
Open Apple menu > System Settings > Notifications.
Under Application Notifications, select the noisy app or website.
Turn off Play sound for notification, leaving Allow notifications on to keep visual alerts.
Repeat for other noisy apps. Each app has its own settings, and the available options vary by app.
To stop an app's visual notifications too, turn off Allow notifications in the same panel.
If the app still makes noise, try its own sound settings in the app section below.
Need quiet for an hour? Use Do Not Disturb
For a temporary break from notifications while music and videos keep playing, turn on Do Not Disturb.
- 1.Open Control Center in the menu bar.
- 2.Click Focus.
- 3.Select Do Not Disturb.
- 4.Choose a duration such as For 1 hour.
- 5.If interruptions continue, review System Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb, including Allowed Apps, Allowed People, Time Sensitive Notifications, and Allow repeated calls. Focus permits configured exceptions; critical alerts and messages sent with Notify Anyway can also interrupt.
Quiet system alert sounds
This quiets system alert sounds.
Open Apple menu > System Settings > Sound.
Drag Alert volume fully left.
For sounds generated independently inside an app, use that app's sound controls below.
A quick way to silence all audio
For immediate quiet, drag the volume slider fully left in Control Center > Sound. This silences music, videos, and other audio too.
On a keyboard with audio controls, press the speaker-mute key or use the volume-down key to lower the volume to zero. On a Touch Bar Mac, use the volume controls in the Control Strip.
Another option is to select Mute or move Output volume fully left in Apple menu > System Settings > Sound. Support for these controls depends on your output device.
When an app keeps making noise
An app's own sound effects can continue after you turn off its macOS notification sounds.
For Messages, open Messages > Settings > General.
Deselect Play sound effects.
Keep Play sound for notification off for Messages under System Settings > Notifications > Application Notifications to silence its macOS-delivered notification sounds too.
For incoming Mail sounds, open Mail > Settings > General.
Set New messages sound to None.
Deselect Play sounds for other mail actions to stop sounds for actions such as sending mail.
In Slack, click your profile picture.
Open Preferences > Notifications > Sound & appearance.
Select Mute all sounds from Slack.
For Outlook, open Outlook > Settings > Personal Settings > Notifications & Sounds > Sounds.
Clear Reminder and the other sound checkboxes you want disabled.
For Gmail on the web, open Settings > See all settings > Desktop notifications.
Set Mail notification sounds to None, leaving your desired mail-notification option enabled to keep visual alerts.
Click Save changes.
Stop notifications arriving from your iPhone
After you've configured iPhone Mirroring, open Apple menu > System Settings > Notifications > Allow notifications from iPhone on your Mac.
Turn off Allow notifications from iPhone to stop all mirrored notifications, including their visual alerts, or disable individual iPhone apps to keep the rest.
To make the change from your iPhone instead, open Settings > Notifications.
Select the app you want to stop showing notifications on your Mac.
Turn off Show on Mac.
Tip: Turning off Allow Notifications for that app on your iPhone stops its notifications on both devices.
Browser sounds and website alerts
In Safari > Settings > Websites > Notifications, set the noisy website to Deny. This blocks the site's visual notifications as well as their sounds.
For Chrome, open the website whose notifications you want to block.
Use View site information > Notifications > Block beside the website's address to stop its notifications.
For audio playing inside a Safari webpage, click the Audio button on the noisy tab or in the Smart Search field. This mutes webpage audio; macOS push-notification sounds have separate controls.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a keyboard shortcut for Do Not Disturb on Mac?
Yes. Hold Option and click the date and time in the menu bar to toggle Do Not Disturb on or off. On keyboards with a crescent-moon Do Not Disturb key, pressing that key also toggles it.
Can I silence notifications automatically during certain hours?
Yes. Open System Settings > Focus.
Select the Focus you want to schedule.
Choose
Set a Schedule > Add Schedule > Time. Configure the hours. Click Done. The Focus still follows its configured notification exceptions.Why does turning on Focus on my iPhone also silence my Mac?
With Share across devices enabled, devices signed in to the same Apple Account share Focus activation. To control your Mac's Focus separately, turn off Share across devices in System Settings > Focus.
Can I mute just one Messages conversation?
Yes. Select the conversation in Messages. Click the contact or group icon. Turn on Hide Alerts. This suppresses visual notifications too. To prevent mention exceptions, deselect Notify me when my name is mentioned in Messages > Settings > General.