How to turn off alerts for apps on the Apple Watch

Posted May 5, 20159 yr

App notifications buzzing your wrist when you don't want them to? Here's the fix!

The Apple Watch has done a lot to reduce my notification panic, letting me filter out the noise I don't need to immediately hear about — Instagram notifications and emails from my favorite soup spot — from the information I do.

But often times, I don't want to kill those notifications completely. I like scrolling through what I've missed on Facebook within the Watch's Notification Center, or what new card packs are available in Topps' Star Wars trading game. I just don't need to be prominently alerted to them.

So how do you turn off sounds and haptic buzzes without disabling third-party app notifications entirely for your Watch?

How to selectively disable sounds and haptics for built-in Apple Watch apps

When it comes to altering notification settings for your Apple Watch, your apps are broken up into two categories: built-in and third-party.

Launch the Apple Watch app from the Home screen on your iPhone.
Tap on Notifications.
Tap the app you wish to adjust.
Tap Custom, if available to see all the settings.
Adjust to your liking.

How to selectively disable sounds and haptics for built-in Apple Watch apps

Third-party apps are a little bit different: Inside the Apple Watch app, their only setting is an on/off switch to mirror the alerts from your iPhone. So that means you need to adjust the iPhone app directly.

Launch the Settings app from the Home screen on your iPhone.
Tap on Notifications.
Tap on the app you wish to adjust.
Turn Sounds to Off.

That will silence any noise or haptic vibration you'll get from the app on your iPhone and Watch, but you'll still see the alert in Notification Center (or on your iPhone's lock screen).

Apple Watch