Reduce Slack notifications, setting by setting.

Get notified only about DMs and mentions

This one setting removes most of the noise.

1. On iPhone, tap your profile picture at the top of the screen, then Notifications.
2. Below What to notify you about, select Mentions and direct messages.
3. On desktop, it’s Profile picturePreferencesNotifications, in the What to notify you about menu.

You can still pick a few channels to hear everything from. Those become exceptions to your default.

Keywords: while you’re there, look at your channel keywords. Each one notifies you whenever someone uses it in a channel you’ve joined. Keep the ones that matter, like your project’s name, and delete the rest. Only exact matches count, and keywords in threads you don’t follow don’t notify you.

Also notify you about: this list covers thread replies, VIP messages while you’re paused, and huddles starting. Turn off what you don’t need. On desktop you can also set a different notification level for mobile here, for example everything on your computer but only DMs and mentions on your phone.

Quiet noisy channels and threads

• Set busy channels to Just mentions. Open the channel, click the Notifications icon, and choose Just mentions. On iPhone, tap the channel name, then Settings & Details, then Notifications.
• Turn off banners for one channel. Under Advanced options, turn off Desktop notifications or Mobile notifications for that channel only.
• Mute what never needs you. Muted channels send no notifications. They’re usually hidden from your sidebar, which you can change: see how to mute a Slack channel without hiding it.
• Turn off threads you’re done with. You’re notified about threads you started, replied to or were mentioned in. On desktop, hover over the thread, click the three dots icon, and select Turn off notifications for replies. On iPhone, tap the thread, tap the three dots icon below the original message, and choose Turn Off Notifications for Replies.
• Review your exceptions. Profile picturePreferencesNotifications lists every channel with its own settings under Exceptions to the defaults. Old “All new posts” channels hide here.

Stop your phone buzzing while you’re at your desk

By default Slack waits before sending mobile notifications: one minute after you lock your computer, or 10 minutes after it stops seeing cursor activity. If your phone and computer buzz at the same moment, check this setting.

1. On iPhone, tap your profile picture, then Notifications.
2. Tap Notify Me on Mobile.
3. Choose As soon as I’m inactive, or an additional delay. Avoid Immediately, even if I’m active.

On desktop the same setting is When I’m not active on desktop, under Profile picturePreferencesNotifications.

Pause Slack outside work hours

A notification schedule is the biggest after-hours cut. Tap your profile picture, then Notifications, then Allow notifications under Notification schedule, and choose Every day, Weekdays or Custom with your start and end times. Outside them, Slack pauses notifications automatically.

For one-offs, tap your profile picture, then Pause notifications, and choose a time frame. The walkthrough is in how to stop Slack notifications after work, and if pauses start turning up when you don’t expect them, see why Slack keeps pausing notifications.

Turn down badges, sounds and email

• Badge on iPhone. SettingsNotificationsSlack, turn off Badges. If a badge never clears, see why a Slack notification won’t go away.
• Badge on Mac. In Slack’s notification preferences, below Sound & appearance, uncheck Show a badge on Slack’s icon to indicate new activity.
• Sounds on desktop. Same section: check Mute all sounds from Slack, or pick a quieter sound per notification type. On iPhone, the Sound option sits under Profile pictureNotifications.
• Previews. Uncheck Include a preview of the message in each notification. A banner that only says who wrote is much easier to leave for later than one showing the question.
• Email. Under When I’m not active on desktop, uncheck Send me email notifications for mentions and direct messages, or keep it and choose how often they arrive. Slack bundles them every 15 minutes or once an hour.
• Activity. Under What to show in Activity, uncheck the types you don’t need in your feed, such as channels set to All new posts or to-do reminders. Mentions, reactions and thread replies always show.

Close the last gap: opening Slack yourself

Once Slack only speaks up for real reasons, the remaining interruptions are the ones you start. That’s a different problem from notifications.