When Apple showed off its first iPhone, it promised simplicity. It wasn’t enough to make it the world’s most advanced smartphone. The device should be easy to use. iPhone OS, which would later simply be renamed iOS, was all about simplifying things so iPhone owners could get back to their lives. There was no notification. When a new email arrives, a giant red number appears on the right edge of each app icon. Today, almost every app supports these tiny number notifications on iPhone and iPad.
They’re useful, but Notification Badges on your iPhone can be downright overkill depending on the apps you have installed. Very quickly, your iPhone Home Screen can transform from a quiet place where you go to get updates on the latest news to a sea of red dots that grabs your attention. Here’s how to turn off number notification badges on iPhone and iPad.
The iPhone and iPad Settings app allows users to manually control what kind of notifications apps can send. These are managed at the app level, meaning you can turn off some or all notifications for any app you want. Apple even lets users customize notifications from apps they add to iPhone and iPad. Let’s start.
Turn on your iPhone by pressing the power button. You will also need to open the lock. If you have an iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus, use the passcode you normally enter or press and hold on the TouchID-equipped home button at the bottom of your screen.
Welcome to the iOS Home Screen. Already, you can see in our example that there are a lot of red icons scattered all over the place. Look at your Home Screen and take note of the apps you want to stop them from clogging your Home Screen with Notification Badges. It might help if you had a paper and pen to jot down seriously annoying apps so you don’t have to go back to the Home Screen during the process.
Find the app and open it.
Tap on it in the Settings app. It is the fifth setting from the top.
Welcome to the notification area. From here you can choose the order in which Notifications appear in your Notification shade, mute sounds and turn off alerts. You can also put an end to Individual Notification Badges. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow users to universally turn off notification badges. Instead, it is done on a per-application basis. Take that paper and tap the name of the first app you want to get rid of the notification badges. In our example we will turn off the Mail Notification Badge. That’s why we touch Mail. You have to tap on the name of the app you want to start.
The switch at the top of your screen allows you to turn off any notifications from a particular app. You want to be careful when using this setting. It makes sense for some apps to be able to notify you when something goes wrong. I say only use this switch if it’s an app that’s particularly awful – like a game that won’t stop texting you and asking you to play with others.
Mail links notifications to individual email accounts so what you see on your screen will be different from what’s in the example. That is, unless you change the notification settings for Mail yourself. lock for the key that says Badge App Icon. This is the switch you want to flip so that there are no number settings next to your app icons. You can also change other notification settings from here.
If they support it, change the Alert Style for your individual apps to include Notification headers. You can also add on-screen alerts that force you to close them. Only use this option if an app is absolutely critical to your day. For example, it’s probably a very good idea to leave the notification settings for the Phone and Messages apps alone. This is because by now your brain has already memorized how these apps work and how you know if you missed something important. If you uninstalled an app, reinstalling it will not restore the notification settings you had.
Press the Home button on your screen to return to your app’s Home Screen. The app you just changed should not have the Notification Badge next to it. Now do this for any other apps that might bother you.
