How do I separate Facebook notifications from Gmail?

With more and more notifications coming from different apps and services, it can be difficult to manage all of the alerts in one place. Facebook and Gmail are two of the biggest offenders when it comes to sending notifications, and keeping them separate can help you stay organized.

Why You Should Separate Facebook and Gmail Notifications

There are a few key reasons why separating Facebook and Gmail notifications can be beneficial:

• Avoid notification overload. Getting a constant stream of notifications from multiple services can be distracting and make it hard to focus. Separating them helps filter out the noise.
• Manage different priorities. Usually emails are more urgent or important than social media notifications. Keeping them apart lets you triage things accordingly.
• Stay better organized. Having notifications from different services bundled together can be chaotic. Separating them creates more order.
• Customize settings. You may want to tweak notification settings differently for email and social media.
• Focus on specific tasks. When it’s time to get work done, you can focus just on email without Facebook distractions.

How to Separate Facebook and Gmail Notifications on Android

If you have an Android phone, there are a couple ways to separate Facebook and Gmail notifications:

Use Notification Channels

The simplest way is to use Android’s notification channels feature:

1. Go to Settings > Apps & notifications
2. Select Notifications
3. Find the Gmail app and tap on it
4. Under recently sent notifications, locate the channel for each type of notification Gmail sends. For example, there may be a Primary channel for your emails.
5. Tap on each channel and change the importance level to High or Low depending on your preferences. For example, set emails to High priority.
6. Repeat the process for the Facebook app. Set less important Facebook notifications to Low.

Now when you get notifications, high priority ones will pop up as alerts, while low priority ones will just appear silently.

Use Multiple Users

Another technique is to set up separate user profiles on your device – one for personal use and one for work. You can then send Facebook notifications to your personal profile and Gmail to your work.

To do this:

1. Go to Settings > System > Multiple users
2. Tap Add user to create a new profile
3. When switching between profiles, only notifications relevant to that profile will appear.

The downside is you’ll have to switch user profiles to see different notifications.

How to Separate Facebook and Gmail Notifications on iPhone

On iOS, you have a couple options to configure your notifications:

Use Notification Groups

Starting with iOS 12, you can bundle notifications into groups by app or topic:

1. Go to Settings > Notifications
2. Tap an app like Gmail
3. Turn on Grouping and customize the notifications
4. Repeat for Facebook and group the notifications differently

This clusters related notifications together, so you’ll get two main groups for Gmail and Facebook.

Manage Notifications Manually

You can also manage each notification individually:

1. Go to Settings > Notifications
2. Select an app like Facebook
3. Tap on each listed notification
4. Adjust the alert style to banner, sound, or off as desired

Doing this for both Facebook and Gmail allows complete customization of each alert.

Use Third-Party Apps

Using a dedicated notification manager app is another option for both iOS and Android. Apps like Notica, BuzzKill, or Notification Manager let you customize notifications with granular control.

Some things you can do with these apps:

• Set priority levels for notifications
• Group notifications in different categories
• Schedule when notifications can appear
• Customize alert sounds and styles

While the native settings give basic control, a third-party app provides more advanced tools to truly tailor each notification.

Additional Recommendations

Here are some other tips for managing notifications from Facebook and Gmail:

Adjust In-App Notification Settings

Don’t just look at device notification settings – the apps themselves have notification options you can configure as well:

• Turn off Facebook email notifications
• Disable Gmail chat notifications
• Unfollow busy Facebook groups or pages
• Mute noisy Gmail threads

Use Do Not Disturb Selectively

Enable Do Not Disturb mode for times you want to focus without distractions from either app.

Try Focus Modes

Android has Focus Modes that will pause distracting apps so you only get priority Gmail alerts for example.

Clean Up Your Accounts

Reduce the number of notifications by:

• Unsubscribing from Facebook email lists
• Turning off many Gmail alert options
• Following fewer accounts on Facebook

Conclusion

With notifications continuing to increase on smartphones, taking control of them is key to staying productive. Facebook and Gmail are two of the most common sources of alerts, so intentionally separating them can help make things more organized.

Using built-in notification channels and groups makes the basics easy to manage. Third-party apps then provide even more advanced customization options. Adjusting individual app settings reduces unnecessary notifications, and things like Do Not Disturb and Focus Modes help silence things when needed.

Find the right mixture of notification management settings and tools that works for your individual needs. This will let you filter out the noise and distractions, so you can focus on the Facebook and Gmail alerts that really matter.