How to silence manage and conceal notifications on your apple watch

Customize when and how you get notifications on your Apple Watch, so you can respond right away or check at your convenience.

Where you’ll see your notifications

Notifications go to either your Apple Watch or iPhone, but not both. Learn when a notification might appear on your iPhone, instead of your Apple Watch, below.

If your iPhone is unlocked, you’ll get notifications on your iPhone instead of your Apple Watch.

If your iPhone is locked or asleep, you’ll get notifications on your Apple Watch, unless your Apple Watch is locked with your passcode.

Some apps, such as the Noise app, are only on your Apple Watch. Notifications for these apps don’t appear on your iPhone.

The red notification icon appears on your watch face when you get a notification. When you dismiss notifications on your Apple Watch, they’re also dismissed from your iPhone.

See all your notifications

1. Touch and hold the top of the watch face to open Notification Center. You can do this from any screen.
2. Wait for Notification Center to show, then swipe down.
3. To scroll, turn the Digital Crown or swipe up and down on the watch face.
4. To read a notification, tap it. To read grouped notifications, tap a stack, then tap a notification.
5. To delete a notification, swipe left, then tap the delete button .

You can hide the notification icon so it doesn’t appear when you have unread notifications. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap Notifications, then turn off Notifications Indicator.

Clear all your notifications

You can clear all your notifications at once:

1. Touch and hold the top of the watch face to open Notification Center.
2. Turn the Digital Crown or swipe down on the watch face until you get to the top.
3. Tap Clear All.

Manage notifications

Your Apple Watch notifications mirror your iPhone settings, but you can customize the settings for each app. In watchOS 5 and later, notifications can be organized by app and grouped in stacks in Notification Center. For example, all your activity notifications can appear in a stack. You can also choose whether or not you get alerts for notifications, so they appear silently or not at all.

How to change how you get notifications on your Apple Watch

1. Touch and hold the top of the watch face.
2. Wait for Notification Center to show, then swipe down.
3. Swipe left on a notification, then tap the more button .
4. If you don’t want to hear sounds or haptic alerts for that app, tap Deliver Quietly. Notifications for that app go directly to Notification Center on both your Apple Watch and iPhone, instead of showing you a notification with a sound or haptic alert.
5. If you don’t want to get notifications for that app, tap Turn Off on Apple Watch.

To see or hear these notifications again, swipe left on a notification from the app, tap the more icon , then tap Deliver Prominently.

Customize your notification settings

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap an app. Different apps have different options. To use the same notification settings on your Apple Watch and iPhone, tap Mirror my iPhone. Some apps allow you to customize your notifications. When you customize, you can choose from these options:
   • Allow Notifications: Notifications appear in Notification Center and your Apple Watch alerts you.
   • Send to Notification Center: Notifications are sent directly to Notification Center without your Apple Watch alerting you.
   • Notifications Off: The app sends no notifications.
4. If you customize an app’s notifications, you can also group notifications from that app. Tap Notification grouping, then choose an option: Off, Automatically, or By app.

If you can’t customize an app, you can still turn off its notifications. Scroll down to the Mirror iPhone Alerts From section and turn off the setting next to the app.

Keep notifications private

When you raise your wrist to see a notification, you see a quick summary, then full details a few seconds later. Here’s how to stop the full details from appearing in the notification:

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Tap Notifications, then turn on Notification Privacy.
3. When you get a notification, tap it to see the full details.

Manage short look notifications

Whether your Apple Watch is locked or unlocked, you see short look notifications by default. A short look is a single screen that shows the notifying app’s name and icon along with the notification title. You can choose to turn off short look notifications when Apple Watch is locked:

1. Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
2. Tap Notifications, then turn off Always Show Short Looks.

If you don’t see notifications on your Apple Watch

When your devices disconnect, your notifications go to your iPhone instead of your Apple Watch. To check your connection, swipe up on the watch face to open Control Center. If your devices are disconnected, you might see the red iPhone icon , the red X icon , or the Wi-Fi icon . Try to connect your iPhone and Apple Watch.

When your Apple Watch locks or you turn on Do Not Disturb, your notifications go to your iPhone:

• When your Apple Watch is locked, the lock icon appears on the watch face.
• When Do Not Disturb is on, the Do Not Disturb icon appears on the watch face. To turn this feature off, swipe up on the watch face, then tap the Do Not Disturb button .

For third-party apps, notifications are delivered only if your paired iPhone is also connected to a network.

Set the volume, mute your watch, or turn on Do Not Disturb. And adjust the strength of the taps and vibrations that your Apple Watch uses for alerts and notifications.

Turn the volume up or down

1. On your Apple Watch, open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down, then tap Sounds & Haptics.
3. Tap the volume down button to decrease the volume or tap the volume up button to increase it. You can also tap the slider, then turn the Digital Crown.
   

Adjust notifications and alerts

Learn how to manage notifications and alerts. You can change when and how you get alerts and how loud the alert is, but you can’t change how it sounds.

Manage Haptic Alerts

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Sounds & Haptics.
3. Turn Haptic Alerts on or off.
   
4. To add extra emphasis to haptic alerts, tap Prominent. This feature adds an additional haptic tap that pre-announces some of your other haptic alerts.

You can also change the settings for specific apps from your iPhone. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, go to the My Watch tab, and tap Sounds & Haptics.

If you’re wearing your Apple Watch and you don’t feel a tap as you adjust the slider, contact Apple Support. For the best haptic results, the back of your Apple Watch needs skin contact. Use a snug, but comfortable fit.

Turn haptic settings for the Digital Crown on or off

1. On your Apple Watch, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Sound & Haptics, then turn Haptic Crown on or off.
   

The Haptic Crown is available only on Apple Watch Series 4 or later.

Turn on Taptic Chimes

Your Apple Watch can chime at different intervals, making it easy to track time without looking.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Accessibility.
3. Scroll down and tap Chimes.
4. Turn Chimes on.
5. Tap Schedule and set the chimes to play on the hour or every 30 or 15 minutes.
6. Tap Sounds and change the chime to Birds or Bells.

You can also adjust these settings from your iPhone. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, tap Accessibility, and tap Chimes.

Mute your Apple Watch

1. Touch and hold the bottom of the watch face. Wait for Control Center to show, then swipe up.
2. Tap the Silent Mode button . This turns on Silent Mode. You can still receive haptic notifications.
   

To silence an alert or notification as it sounds, rest your palm on the display for at least three seconds or until you feel a tap. If it doesn’t work, see if the Cover to Mute setting is on: On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, go to the My Watch tab, then tap Sounds & Haptics.

Turn on Do Not Disturb

1. Touch and hold the bottom of the watch face. Wait for Control Center to show, then swipe up.
2. Tap the Do Not Disturb button , then choose an option. You can manually turn off Do Not Disturb or set it for a period of time, so it automatically turns off.
   

Do Not Disturb keeps calls and alerts (except for alarms) from sounding or lighting up the screen. When enabled, the Do Not Disturb icon appears at the top of the screen.

Change settings from your iPhone

On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, go to the My Watch tab, and tap Sounds & Haptics.

Khamosh Pathak
Khamosh Pathak
Writer

Khamosh Pathak is a freelance technology writer who specializes in tutorials. His work has also been published on Lifehacker, iPhoneHacks, Zapier’s blog, MakeUseOf, and Guiding Tech. Khamosh has nearly a decade of experience writing how-tos, features and technology guides on the internet. Read more.

Khamosh Pathak

By default, Apple Watch buzzes every time your iPhone does. But what if you want to turn off particularly annoying app notifications on your Apple Watch? You can do this right from your wrist.

How to Turn Off App Notifications on Apple Watch

Starting with watchOS 5, Apple Watch gained the ability to quiet and disable notifications right from the Notification Center. The Deliver Quietly feature works the same as on your iPhone. When enabled, your Apple Watch won’t buzz or vibrate, but you’ll find the notifications when you visit the Notification Center.

If you’re the kind of person who wants only a subset of notifications (perhaps only the really important ones) on your Apple Watch, you can also disable the notifications for an app.

To start this process, swipe down from the watch face on your Apple Watch to reveal the Notification Center.

Then, find the notification from the app you want to disable and then swipe left on it.

Here, tap the three-dots.

You’ll now see two options. Tap the “Deliver Quietly” option to mute the notifications. If you want to disable the notifications altogether, tap the “Turn Off on Apple Watch” option.

The Deliver Quietly feature is great for when you want a temporary downtime. This setting is synced with your iPhone and you can customize this feature from the Notification Center on your iPhone as well.

After a quiet period, you might want to go back to the default behavior. For that, you can swipe left on the notification again and tap the Menu button to reveal the options. Here, you’ll now see a “Deliver Prominently” option. Tap it.

How to Manage Apple Watch App Notifications

Sometime down the line, you might want to re-enable notifications for an app on your Apple Watch. You can do this from the Watch app on your iPhone.

Open the “Watch” app, and from the “My Watch” tab, tap the “Notifications” option.

Here, tap the app for which you want to configure notifications.

Switch the setting to “Allow Notifications” to return to the default option.

In the Notifications section, scroll down until you find the “Mirror iPhone Alerts From” section. Here, you’ll see a list of iPhone apps that don’t have an Apple Watch counterpart you can mirror notifications from. To re-enable notifications for an app, tap the toggle next to it.

If you want to disable the Deliver Quietly option for a notification from the iPhone, you’ll have to use the handset’s “Settings” app.

To do that, open the “Settings” app and then tap the “Notifications” option.

Scroll down and tap the app (it will have a “Delivery Quietly” tag under the title).

Here, enable the alerts for Lock Screen and Banners. Below that section, tap the toggles next to the “Sound” and “Badges” option to return to the default behavior.

You can do a lot more with your Apple Watch. Take a look at our Apple Watch tips guide to learn more.

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Khamosh Pathak
Khamosh Pathak is a freelance technology writer who specializes in tutorials. His work has also been published on Lifehacker, iPhoneHacks, Zapier’s blog, MakeUseOf, and Guiding Tech. Khamosh has nearly a decade of experience writing how-tos, features and technology guides on the internet.
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Customize when and how you get notifications on your Apple Watch, so you can respond right away or check at your convenience.

Where you’ll see your notifications

Notifications go to either your Apple Watch or iPhone, but not both. Learn when a notification might appear on your iPhone, instead of your Apple Watch, below.

If your iPhone is unlocked, you’ll get notifications on your iPhone instead of your Apple Watch.

If your iPhone is locked or asleep, you’ll get notifications on your Apple Watch, unless your Apple Watch is locked with your passcode.

Some apps, such as the Noise app, are only on your Apple Watch. Notifications for these apps don’t appear on your iPhone.

The red notification icon appears on your watch face when you get a notification. When you dismiss notifications on your Apple Watch, they’re also dismissed from your iPhone.

See all your notifications

1. Touch and hold the top of the watch face to open Notification Center. You can do this from any screen.
2. Wait for Notification Center to show, then swipe down.
3. To scroll, turn the Digital Crown or swipe up and down on the watch face.
4. To read a notification, tap it. To read grouped notifications, tap a stack, then tap a notification.
5. To delete a notification, swipe left, then tap the delete button .

You can hide the notification icon so it doesn’t appear when you have unread notifications. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap Notifications, then turn off Notifications Indicator.

Clear all your notifications

You can clear all your notifications at once:

1. Touch and hold the top of the watch face to open Notification Center.
2. Turn the Digital Crown or swipe down on the watch face until you get to the top.
3. Tap Clear All.

Manage notifications

Your Apple Watch notifications mirror your iPhone settings, but you can customize the settings for each app. In watchOS 5 and later, notifications can be organized by app and grouped in stacks in Notification Center. For example, all your activity notifications can appear in a stack. You can also choose whether or not you get alerts for notifications, so they appear silently or not at all.

How to change how you get notifications on your Apple Watch

1. Touch and hold the top of the watch face.
2. Wait for Notification Center to show, then swipe down.
3. Swipe left on a notification, then tap the more button .
4. If you don’t want to hear sounds or haptic alerts for that app, tap Deliver Quietly. Notifications for that app go directly to Notification Center on both your Apple Watch and iPhone, instead of showing you a notification with a sound or haptic alert.
5. If you don’t want to get notifications for that app, tap Turn Off on Apple Watch.

To see or hear these notifications again, swipe left on a notification from the app, tap the more icon , then tap Deliver Prominently.

Customize your notification settings

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Tap an app. Different apps have different options. To use the same notification settings on your Apple Watch and iPhone, tap Mirror my iPhone. Some apps allow you to customize your notifications. When you customize, you can choose from these options:
   • Allow Notifications: Notifications appear in Notification Center and your Apple Watch alerts you.
   • Send to Notification Center: Notifications are sent directly to Notification Center without your Apple Watch alerting you.
   • Notifications Off: The app sends no notifications.
4. If you customize an app’s notifications, you can also group notifications from that app. Tap Notification grouping, then choose an option: Off, Automatically, or By app.

If you can’t customize an app, you can still turn off its notifications. Scroll down to the Mirror iPhone Alerts From section and turn off the setting next to the app.

Keep notifications private

When you raise your wrist to see a notification, you see a quick summary, then full details a few seconds later. Here’s how to stop the full details from appearing in the notification:

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Tap Notifications, then turn on Notification Privacy.
3. When you get a notification, tap it to see the full details.

Manage short look notifications

Whether your Apple Watch is locked or unlocked, you see short look notifications by default. A short look is a single screen that shows the notifying app’s name and icon along with the notification title. You can choose to turn off short look notifications when Apple Watch is locked:

1. Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
2. Tap Notifications, then turn off Always Show Short Looks.

If you don’t see notifications on your Apple Watch

When your devices disconnect, your notifications go to your iPhone instead of your Apple Watch. To check your connection, swipe up on the watch face to open Control Center. If your devices are disconnected, you might see the red iPhone icon , the red X icon , or the Wi-Fi icon . Try to connect your iPhone and Apple Watch.

When your Apple Watch locks or you turn on Do Not Disturb, your notifications go to your iPhone:

• When your Apple Watch is locked, the lock icon appears on the watch face.
• When Do Not Disturb is on, the Do Not Disturb icon appears on the watch face. To turn this feature off, swipe up on the watch face, then tap the Do Not Disturb button .

For third-party apps, notifications are delivered only if your paired iPhone is also connected to a network.

I love keeping up with calls, messages, and other notifications on my Apple Watch. But there are many instances when I need to silence my watch, like during meetings, while sleeping, etc. There are a few different options to help mute your Apple Watch.

In this article, I’ll explain all the methods so that you know how to silence your Apple Watch whenever you need to.

Before we proceed, here are a few things to know:

• On Apple Watch, Silent Mode and Do Not Disturb are not the same thing. Silent Mode only silences sounds, so haptics (vibrate) will remain on if they are enabled in the settings. Do Not Disturb will also silence haptics so that you are not disturbed.
• Silent Mode does not silence alarms or timers on Apple Watch.

How to put Apple Watch on silent from Settings

On Apple Watch

First, let’s check out the old-school way of enabling Silent Mode on the Apple Watch. This can be done on your watch or on your paired iPhone.

Note: Alarms and timers will still ring.

1. Open Settings and tap Sounds & Haptics on your Apple Watch.
2. Toggle on Silent Mode.
   Use the slider to adjust the ring volume.

On iPhone

1. Open the Watch app.
2. In the My Watch tab, tap Sounds & Haptics.
3. Toggle on Silent Mode.
   Note: You can also adjust the ring volume using the slider.

Again, remember that if you want your watch to still vibrate for alerts, toggle on Haptic Alerts.

How to quickly silence Apple Watch incoming alerts from iPhone

In the Sounds & Haptics settings on iPhone, you will see another option called Cover to Mute. This comes in handy to quickly silence your watch whenever you need to.

When Cover to Mute is enabled and your watch rings, you can simply cover it with your hand for at least 3 seconds to mute the sound.

This can be super useful when you’ve forgotten to put your watch on silent mode during a meeting or event.

Quickly Silence your Apple Watch from Control Center

Here’s a quick way to turn on Silent Mode on your Apple Watch:

1. Swipe up the watch face to access the ControlCenter.
2. Tap the bellicon.
   It will turn red in color and have a slash through the bell to indicate that Silent Mode is enabled.
3. You will also receive vibrations on your wrist if the Haptic Alerts option is enabled.

To turn off Haptic Alerts, go to Settings on Apple Watch or the Watch app on iPhone → tap Sounds & Haptics → toggle off Haptic Alerts.

How to turn on Do Not Disturb on Apple Watch

Do Not Disturb is another handy option to mute your Apple Watch. This feature prevents calls and alerts from sounding or lighting up the watch screen. It turns off all alerts except for alarms, timers, and heart rate notifications.

Follow the steps below to enable Do Not Disturb mode:

1. Swipe up the watch face to access the ControlCenter.
2. Tap the crescent-shaped Do Not Disturb icon.
   It will turn blue in color.
3. Tap the icon again to disable Do Not Disturb.

Note: On watchOS 8, Do Not Disturb is connected to the new Focus mode of iOS 15. This means that when you tap the Do Not Disturb icon in the Control Center, you will have the option to select a particular Focus mode.

How to turn on Theater Mode on Apple Watch

You can turn on Theater Mode to put your watch on Silent and keeps the screen dark until you tap it or press the digital crown or side button. It also temporarily disables the Raise Wrist to Wake Screen feature and changes your walkie-talkie status to unavailable.

1. Swipe up your Watch face to access the Control Center.
2. Tap the Theater Mode icon, which looks like a pair of masks.
   It will turn orange in color.

When you silence your Apple Watch using any of the methods above, it does not affect Siri. Whenever Siri believes you said “Hey, Siri,” it will respond out loud. To avoid this, you can switch off Hey Siri.

Extra Tip: How to silence Siri on Apple Watch

1. Go to Settings on your Apple Watch.
2. Tap Siri
3. Toggle off Listen for “Hey Siri”

Note: You can still make Siri listen to you manually by pressing and holding the Digital Crown when speaking.

As you can say, there are multiple ways to silence your Apple Watch. This can be somewhat confusing. Moreover, alarms and timers will not be affected, so they may ring when you don’t expect them to. If you’re in a situation when you don’t want to hear any sounds, the best option is to switch off your Apple Watch.

Is there anything else you’d like to know about using your Apple Watch? Let me know in the comments below.

Read more:

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As someone who can’t remember the last time their phone was on ring (or even vibrate at this point, thanks to Do Not Disturb), figuring out how to silence my Apple Watch was high on the agenda upon first using the device.

It turns out there are a few ways to silence your Apple Watch, which we’ve outlined below:

How to mute your Apple Watch

Muting your Apple Watch will only silence sounds on the device. Here’s how to do it.

1. Swipe up on the Watch face to reveal the Control Center.

2. Tap the bell icon to activate Silent Mode. Once this feature is turned on, the icon will light up and have a slash through the bell.

3. You can still receive haptic notifications (taps on your wrist) on Silent Mode, and alarms and timers will still sound while Apple Watch is charging.

4. Turn off Haptic Alerts in the Settings app on Apple Watch or the Watch app on iPhone by tapping Sounds & Haptics and switching Haptic Alerts off.

How to turn on Do Not Disturb

This feature keeps calls and alerts from sounding or lighting up your Watch screen.

1. Swipe up on the Watch face to reveal the Control Center.

2. Tap the crescent moon icon.

3. Select an option to determine how long this feature will be activated. “On” will keep Do Not Disturb on until you manually turn it off, and options like “On for 1 hour” and “On until this evening” automatically turn off Do Not Disturb after a set period of time.

4. Once Do Not Disturb is activated, the moon icon will appear in the center of the Watch face.

5. Alarms will still sound on Do Not Disturb mode.

6. Turning on or off Do Not Disturb also activates or deactivates the feature on iPhone, and the same goes for turning the feature on and off on iPhone.

How to turn on Theater Mode

Theater Mode is another option for silencing your Apple Watch. When Theater Mode is on, Silent Mode is also activated and it temporarily disables the Wake Screen on Wrist Raise feature.

1. Swipe up on the Watch face to reveal the Control Center.

2. Tap the icon with the two masks.

3. When Theater Mode is activated you’ll see the masks icon at the top of the Watch display.

4. You will still receive haptic notifications in Theater Mode.

5. To wake the Watch screen while Theater Mode is activated, tap the display or press the side button or Digital Crown.

How to silence an incoming alert

If you’ve forgotten to mute or otherwise silence notifications beforehand, you can silence an incoming alert or notification thanks to a feature called Cover to Mute.

1. Make sure Cover to Mute is on by going to the Watch iPhone app, tapping the My Watch tab and selecting Sounds & Haptics. Turn on Cover to Mute.

2. To silence an incoming alert or notification, cover the display with your palm until you feel a tap (about three seconds).

The Apple Watch is able to shoulder the tsunami of notifications you receive on a daily basis, letting you glance at updates without getting sucked into your iPhone.

However, while this is one of the smartwatch’s simplest skills, there’s plenty to understand. Knowing how to set Apple Watch notifications up, manage them, mute them and clear them are all helpful to understand.

By default, your Apple Watch is set up to mirror the stream coming through to your iOS device – below, we’ll be explaining how to customize them and take control.

And if your Apple Watch notifications aren’t coming through, we’ll give you a checklist of potential solutions.

How to view your notifications

If you’re new to the Apple Watch, you might be a little confused as to how you access your notifications.

Handily, it’s the same as on your iPhone – simply swipe down from the top of the screen.

This can be done from any screen, too, not just the home screen, and you can scroll through the list by touching the screen or twisting the Digital Crown.

In order to read a notification, just give it a little tap; to read grouped notifications, tap the stack and then go through to the individual notifications.

Wondering why you only get them on either your Watch or iPhone? Well, if your iPhone is unlocked, you’ll get notifications there, but if it’s locked or asleep, they’ll be sent straight to your wrist (unless it’s locked via passcode).

Also, be aware that when you dismiss a notification on your Apple Watch, it’s also dismissed from your iPhone.

Change how notifications are delivered

If you too often find yourself muting your Apple Watch, or you simply don’t want notifications from a specific app sent to your wrist, you do have the option to manage things.

1. Swipe down to open the Apple Watch notification center.

2. Swipe left on a notification, then tap the three dots.

3. If you want to mute the sound or turn off the haptic alerts for that app, tap Deliver Quietly. This will result in the notification appearing in both the phone and watch notification center, but without actually notifying you.

4. If you don’t want to get notifications for that app, tap Turn Off on Apple Watch.

5. If you want to turn the sounds or haptics back on, simply reverse the process – tap the three dots and select Deliver Prominently.

Clear all Apple Watch notifications

Let’s be honest, if you have a lot of notifications, you don’t want to be individually deleting them all from the stream.

To clear Apple Watch notifications at the same time, use Force Touch (push down slightly harder than a tap) on the screen and you should see the screen change and give you the option to ‘X’ all of the notifications.

Change which apps deliver notifications

You may want notifications from Twitter and Facebook, but not want them from messaging platforms like WhatsApp or iMessage. To toggle which apps you receive alerts from:

1. Go to the Watch app on your iPhone, tap the My Watch tab and head to the notifications section.

2. Different apps let you customize differently. The top section lets you customize an app’s alerts individually, though most third-party apps will only let you turn the option to mirror your iPhone notifications on or off.

Mute Apple Watch notifications

In a meeting and want to keep wrist buzzes to a minimum? Bombarded by a group chat while at the movies? Turn your Apple Watch to Do Not Disturb mode and mute some of the updates.

To do so, swipe down to open the control center and then tap the Do Not Disturb icon. This will light up at the top of the home screen to indicate it’s on – you’ll have to reverse the process to begin receiving notifications again.

Apple Watch notifications not working?

If notifications don’t seem to be coming through to your Apple Watch, there’s a few things you can do to troubleshoot the issue.

Set the volume, mute your watch, or turn on Do Not Disturb. And adjust the strength of the taps and vibrations that your Apple Watch uses for alerts and notifications.

Turn the volume up or down

1. On your Apple Watch, open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down, then tap Sounds & Haptics.
3. Tap the volume down button to decrease the volume or tap the volume up button to increase it. You can also tap the slider, then turn the Digital Crown.
   

Adjust notifications and alerts

Learn how to manage notifications and alerts. You can change when and how you get alerts and how loud the alert is, but you can’t change how it sounds.

Manage Haptic Alerts

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Sounds & Haptics.
3. Turn Haptic Alerts on or off.
   
4. To add extra emphasis to haptic alerts, tap Prominent. This feature adds an additional haptic tap that pre-announces some of your other haptic alerts.

You can also change the settings for specific apps from your iPhone. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, go to the My Watch tab, and tap Sounds & Haptics.

If you’re wearing your Apple Watch and you don’t feel a tap as you adjust the slider, contact Apple Support. For the best haptic results, the back of your Apple Watch needs skin contact. Use a snug, but comfortable fit.

Turn haptic settings for the Digital Crown on or off

1. On your Apple Watch, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Sound & Haptics, then turn Haptic Crown on or off.
   

The Haptic Crown is available only on Apple Watch Series 4 or later.

Turn on Taptic Chimes

Your Apple Watch can chime at different intervals, making it easy to track time without looking.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Accessibility.
3. Scroll down and tap Chimes.
4. Turn Chimes on.
5. Tap Schedule and set the chimes to play on the hour or every 30 or 15 minutes.
6. Tap Sounds and change the chime to Birds or Bells.

You can also adjust these settings from your iPhone. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, tap Accessibility, and tap Chimes.

Mute your Apple Watch

1. Touch and hold the bottom of the watch face. Wait for Control Center to show, then swipe up.
2. Tap the Silent Mode button . This turns on Silent Mode. You can still receive haptic notifications.
   

To silence an alert or notification as it sounds, rest your palm on the display for at least three seconds or until you feel a tap. If it doesn’t work, see if the Cover to Mute setting is on: On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, go to the My Watch tab, then tap Sounds & Haptics.

Turn on Do Not Disturb

1. Touch and hold the bottom of the watch face. Wait for Control Center to show, then swipe up.
2. Tap the Do Not Disturb button , then choose an option. You can manually turn off Do Not Disturb or set it for a period of time, so it automatically turns off.
   

Do Not Disturb keeps calls and alerts (except for alarms) from sounding or lighting up the screen. When enabled, the Do Not Disturb icon appears at the top of the screen.

Change settings from your iPhone

On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, go to the My Watch tab, and tap Sounds & Haptics.

Jason Fitzpatrick
Jason Fitzpatrick
Editor at Large

Jason Fitzpatrick is the Editor in Chief of LifeSavvy, How-To Geek’s sister site focused life hacks, tips, and tricks. He has over a decade of experience in publishing and has authored thousands of articles at Review Geek, How-To Geek, and Lifehacker. Jason served as Lifehacker’s Weekend Editor before he joined How-To Geek. Read more.

While we love how the Apple Watch parks useful notifications right on our wrist, it can be a noisy little cricket. Thankfully it’s easy, if you know where to look, to quiet the Apple Watch.

Adjusting the Volume from Your Watch

There are two ways to deal with a noisy Apple Watch directly from the watch itself. The first way is to blanket silence it, which is the technique we highlighted in our previous Apple Watch tutorial, How to Silence, Manage, and Conceal Notifications on Your Apple Watch.

If you need to quiet your Apple Watch in a hurry or you just want to temporarily silence it while you’re in a meeting, it’s very convenient to do so via the Glances menu system.

From the watch face just swipe up to access the Glances menu and over to select the Status glance. There you can tap the bell icon to immediately silence your watch, as seen below. You cannot, however, adjust the actual volume levels here.

The second way is more granular and involves a trip into the Settings menu of the Apple Watch. To get there click the digital crown on the side of the Apple Watch to access the application menu, select the Settings (the gear shaped icon), and then scroll down to the menu entry for “Sound & Haptics”.

There in the Sound & Haptics menu, seen above, you can not only mute the watch just as you did with the Glances shortcut but you can also adjust the volume to a comfortable level.

Adjusting the Volume from Your Phone

If you wish to make the adjustment from your phone you do so easily from the My Watch application. To do so open up the My Watch application on the paired iPhone and then scroll down and select, just like on the Apple Watch, the entry for “Sound & Haptics”.

Within the Sound & Haptics menu you can adjust the volume just as you can on the Apple Watch. The big difference here is that, thanks to the screen sizes, the slider bar on the iPhone is radically bigger and offers a little more of a fine-touch when it comes to selecting exactly the sound level you want.

You can also put the watch in “Silent Mode” from the phone application, perfect for those times where your watch is, say, buried in your luggage and chiming away.

Have a pressing question about your Apple Watch or other gear? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to answer it.

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Jason Fitzpatrick
Jason Fitzpatrick is the Editor in Chief of LifeSavvy, How-To Geek’s sister site focused life hacks, tips, and tricks. He has over a decade of experience in publishing and has authored thousands of articles at Review Geek, How-To Geek, and Lifehacker. Jason served as Lifehacker’s Weekend Editor before he joined How-To Geek.
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