Disable Message Notifications on Mac

First, we will show you how to turn off text forwarding from your iPhone to your Mac and use other tricks to customize Message notifications on Mac to find an optimum balance.

1. Disable Text Message Forwarding on Mac

If you don’t want to check unimportant text messages on your Mac, disable text forwarding on your iPhone. Here’s how.

  1. Open the Settings app on iPhone.
  2. Scroll to Messages.
  3. Scroll to Text Message Forwarding.
  4. Disable your MacBook from the following menu. Now, your iPhone won’t forward regular text messages to your Mac.

2. Turn off Messages Notifications

You can completely turn off Messages alerts on your MacBook. The trick will disable normal messages as well as iMessage on Mac.

  1. Select the Apple icon in the top left corner.
  2. Open the System Preferences menu.
  3. Select Notifications & Focus.
  4. Scroll to Messages from the left sidebar.
  5. Disable Allow Notifications toggle. You won’t receive any notifications from the Messages app now. So you should regularly check the Messages app to not miss any important alerts on the Mac.

3. Use Focus Mode on Mac

You should be careful when enabling Focus on Mac. You must exclude work apps from the Focus mode to get real-time notifications from Slack and Microsoft Teams, for example. Here’s how you can set up Focus on Mac.

  1. Open System Preferences on Mac.
  2. Go to Notifications & Focus (refer to the steps above).
  3. Slide to the Focus menu.
  4. Select a Focus profile that you frequently use on your Mac.
  5. Click Apps under Allowed Notifications from the menu. Click + icon.
  6. Select your most-essential apps from the following menu. When you enable Focus on Mac, you will only receive notifications from selected apps. macOS will no longer disturb you with unnecessary notifications from the Messages app.

4. Disable iMessage on Mac

You can disable the function if you don’t need iMessage on Mac. Once you disable iMessage on Mac, you will continue to receive new messages on your iPhone and iPad. Follow the steps below to disable iMessage on Mac.

  1. Open the Messages app on Mac.
  2. Select Messages in the menu bar.
  3. Open Messages Preferences.
  4. Select iMessage.
  5. Click the Sign Out button and confirm your decision.

5. Turn off Messages Notifications from Selected Contacts

When a specific contact spams you with dozens of alerts throughout the day, you can hide alerts from the person in the Messages app. Here’s how.

  1. Launch Messages on Mac and open a conversation you want to mute.
  2. Select the info (i) button in the top right corner.
  3. Enable checkmark beside Hide Alerts.
  4. You can also two-finger click on a conversation and select Hide Alerts from the context menu. You can now ignore irritating contacts in the Messages app.

6. Block Contacts in the Messages App

The trick above only hides alerts from selected contacts. If you ultimately want to stop notifications from them, follow the steps below and block a contact in the Messages app.

  1. Open the Messages app on Mac.
  2. Go to the iMessage menu in Messages preferences (refer to the steps above).
  3. Move to the Blocked tab.
  4. Click the + icon and select the contacts you want to block. You won’t receive messages or calls from the selected contacts on the Mac or iPhone.

Get the Job Done Without Disruptions

Unnecessary message alerts throughout the day can spoil your workflow. Before you are left with unfinished tasks every day, follow the steps above and disable Messages notifications on Mac in no time.