Apple’s most personal device can sometimes be a little too personal, getting in the way of life with various notifications, some of which users do not care for particularly. Many users aren’t aware that they can actually choose which notifications they receive on their wrists and which are pushed to their iPhone instead.
In this article we detail how to customize which notifications you receive from individual apps, step by step. We also go over how to disable notifications from specific apps altogether.
Also read: How to Unlock iPhone and Mac with an Apple Watch
Getting to Notification Settings
To access the notification settings, launch the Watch app from your iPhone’s home screen.
Tap “Notifications.”
Here you can adjust settings pertaining to a notification indicator and notification privacy.
Furthermore, you’ll be able to access “mirroring settings” for various apps on your device. Mirroring simply implies sending the same notification received on your iPhone to your watch.
Adjusting Apple App Notification Settings
1. Tap Mail from the “Notifcations” menu.
2. Select “Custom” instead of “Mirror my iPhone.” Select whether you’d like to receive email alerts on your wrist or not as well as selectively turn on or off specific mailbox alerts.
3. If you choose to accept alerts, you’ll receive them as often as mail is fetched on your iPhone. The more frequently new mail is checked, the more heavy the battery drain.
Activity
1. Tap “Activity.”
2. Adjust activity settings to meet your personal needs. You may want to allow a weekly summary and stand reminders but have most other options disabled. Or you may want to turn all notifications on.
3. You can also disable all activity-based notifications for the day if you so choose.
Breathe
1. To disable or enable Breathe reminders, tap “Breathe.”
2. Adjust reminders to your liking or disable them altogether. Similarly with the Activity settings, a “Weekly Summary” option is also adjustable.
Messages
1. Tap “Messages.”
2. Tap “Custom.”
3. Toggle sounds, haptics, or visual alerts to your liking by flipping the corresponding switches.
4. To adjust alert repetition settings, tap “Repeat Alerts.”
5. Tap the options for once, twice, three times, five times, ten times, or never. For clarification, when you receive a message and dismiss it, two minutes later you will receive that same notification again. This will happen up to the selected number of times until the notification is addressed.
Other First Party Apps
Most other Apple apps will have similar in-depth settings for each app, while others will simply only offer toggling notifications on or off.
Take Maps, for example. Turn alerts can only be switched on or off.
Adjusting Third Party App Notification Settings
In almost all cases of third party app settings, alerts can be mirrored to your Apple Watch or only reach your iPhone – and nothing more. To adjust this under the first grouping of apps, tap an app.
Toggle the “Mirror iPhone alerts” switch on or off.
To do this under the second grouping of apps, the “Mirror iPhone alerts” switch can be toggled directly without a second step.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a long-time Apple Watch user or just getting set up, it is best to check your notification settings every so often to further simplify your life and make sure you are notified of what truly matters. How do you have settings customized on your Watch? Let us know in the comments.
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