Facebook notifications can be useful for staying up-to-date with what’s happening on the platform, but the notification sounds can also become annoying or distracting for some users. Fortunately, Facebook provides options to control notification sounds in your account settings.
Overview of Facebook Notifications
Facebook notifications alert you to activity on the platform that involves your account. This can include:
- Friend requests
- Comments on your posts
- Messages
- Reactions to your content
- Life events from friends
- Birthday reminders
- Pages and Groups updates
- Live videos from connections
- Recommendations for people to connect with
By default, you’ll receive a notification sound/pop-up for this activity. The notification sound is the same for all notification types by default.
Reasons to Turn Off Notification Sounds
There are several reasons you may want to turn off Facebook notification sounds:
- Distracting: The incoming notification sounds can interrupt your concentration during work or other tasks.
- Disruptive: If you receive a lot of notifications, the frequent sound effects can be disruptive to those around you.
- Annoying: Some users simply find the repeated notification sounds annoying after a while.
- Overwhelming: Too many notifications with sounds can feel overwhelming and stressful.
- Privacy: Notification sounds openly alert others around you to your Facebook activity.
Turning off the notification sounds allows you to stay updated from the notification pop-ups without the audio effects.
How to Mute Notification Sounds on Desktop
If you primarily use Facebook on a desktop computer, you can mute notification sounds in your Facebook settings:
- Click on the arrow in the top right and select “Settings & Privacy”
- Go to the “Notifications” tab
- Scroll down to the “Sounds” section
- Toggle off the slider button next to “Play sound for notifications”
This will prevent any notification sounds from playing when you receive notifications on Facebook desktop. The notifications will still appear visually, just without audio.
Customizing Notification Sounds on Desktop
In the “Sounds” section of the Notifications settings, you also have the option to customize which notification types make sounds by toggling specific events on or off. For example, you could mute sounds for friend requests and messages, but keep sounds on for Lives and birthdays. This allows you to fine-tune which notifications are less disruptive.
How to Mute Notification Sounds on Mobile
To mute Facebook notification sounds in the Facebook mobile app for iOS or Android:
- Open the Facebook app and tap the three-line menu icon
- Go to “Settings & privacy” > “Settings”
- Tap on “Notifications”
- Toggle off “Sound”
This will turn off all notification sounds. You can also tap on specific notification types under “Notifications” to customize which make sounds.
Using Device Notification Settings
Alternatively, you can mute Facebook notification sounds by adjusting your device-wide notification settings:
- iPhone/iPad: Go to Settings > Notifications > Facebook > Sounds > Toggle off sound options
- Android: Go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Facebook > Notifications > Toggle off “Sound”
Turning Off Specific Notification Sounds
If you only want to mute certain Facebook notification sounds, but keep others enabled, you have a few options:
- Groups: Go to any Group, click the three-dot menu > Turn off notifications. This mutes that Group’s notifications only.
- Pages: Go to any Page, click the three-dot menu > Turn off notifications. This disables that Page’s notifications.
- Friends: Go to any friend’s profile, click the three-dot menu > Mute > Mute Notifications. This mutes notifications from that friend.
Using these controls, you can customize and mute notifications selectively rather than turning off all notification sounds.
Disabling Specific Notification Types
In your main Facebook notification settings, you can also toggle off certain notification types, while keeping other types enabled:
| Notification Type | How to Mute |
|---|---|
| Friend Requests | Notifications Settings > Friend Requests > Toggle off |
| Messages | Notifications Settings > Messages > Toggle off |
| Groups | Notifications Settings > Groups > Toggle off |
| Pages | Notifications Settings > Pages > Toggle off |
| Events | Notifications Settings > Events > Toggle off |
| Reactions | Notifications Settings > Reactions > Toggle off |
| Comments | Notifications Settings > Comments > Toggle off |
| Recommended for You | Notifications Settings > Recommended for You > Toggle off |
This allows you to really customize which notification types make sounds on Facebook.
Using Third-Party Apps to Mute Sounds
Some other options for muting Facebook notification sounds include using third-party apps or tools:
- Facebook Messenger app: Mute notifications for specific chats.
- Browser extensions: Mute audio from browser tabs, such as Too Noisy.
- Mac tools: Use Do Not Disturb on Mac to mute all alerts during certain times.
- Windows tools: Use Focus Assist on Windows to block sounds when you need to concentrate.
Downsides of Third-Party Options
Potential downsides of using third-party tools include:
- Having to install extra software
- May block notifications you want to keep
- Can be overly disruptive if blocking all sounds
- Requires more technical setup
Adjusting your Facebook notification settings directly can provide more control without relying on other apps.
Useful Facebook Notification Settings
In addition to sound toggles, some other Facebook notification settings that may be useful include:
- Vibrate: Keep vibration on for silent alerts.
- Pop-ups: Disable pop-up notifications.
- LED: Turn off LED flashing for notifications.
- Push: Toggle Facebook push notifications on/off.
- Priority: Choose priority notification senders.
Experiment with these to customize your preferences for being notified by Facebook.
Troubleshooting Tips
If you are still hearing Facebook notification sounds after muting them, try these troubleshooting tips:
- Double check notification settings were saved properly
- Close and restart the Facebook app
- Check your device sound settings
- Update the Facebook app
- Log out and back into Facebook
- Clear the Facebook app cache/data
- Make sure Facebook app permissions allow sounds
- Restart your device
Usually a quick logout/login or app restart resolves any issues with muted notifications not taking effect properly. Contact Facebook support if muting sounds continues to fail.
Other Ways to Manage Notifications
In addition to adjusting notification sounds, some other tips for managing Facebook notifications include:
- Set up priority senders to highlight important notifications
- Use filters to send notifications to different folders
- Enable/disable notifications for specific people, Pages, or Groups
- Adjust number of notifications badge shows
- View notifications on desktop to avoid sound disruptions
- Designate certain hours as offline time
- Snooze notifications temporarily
Conclusion
Facebook provides robust options for controlling notification sounds directly in your Facebook and device notification settings. This allows you to disable sounds for some or all Facebook notifications based on your preferences and needs. Finding the right balance for your notification alerts takes experimentation, but muting distracting sounds can help you stay focused while still staying informed.