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How to Pause Notifications on Android

Dec 2, 2020

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Notifications can be a blessing and a curse. They’re super handy at times, but they can be distracting too. If you have an Android smartphone or tablet, there’s a good chance you can give yourself a break and snooze them.

It’s possible to completely turn off notifications for specific apps, but sometimes, that’s too aggressive. Maybe you just need to pause distractions for a short time. Android Oreo has introduced notification snoozing, and it’s available on many devices.

Snoozing notifications is available on Google Pixel phones and Samsung Galaxy devices. Availability is limited (and sometimes not available) on phones and tablets from other manufacturers. Here’s how it works.

On some versions of Android, you’ll need to manually enable Notification Snoozing before you can use it. Swipe down from the top of the screen (once or twice depending on your device’s manufacturer) and tap the gear icon to open the Settings menu.

From the Settings menu, go to “Apps & Notifications.”

Select the “Notifications” option.

Scroll down and expand the “Advanced” section.

Toggle the switch on to “Allow Notification Snoozing.”

Now we can actually pause some notifications. First, swipe down from the top of the screen to open the notifications shade.

Next, find a notification from the app that you want to snooze, and slowly slide it to the left or right.

Lift your finger before fully swiping it away. You’ll see a gear icon, and either a bell or a clock icon. Tap the clock icon.

Or select the bell icon.

The notification will say “Snoozed for 1 Hour.” Tap the down arrow to see more time options.

The time options will usually be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours. Choose one of the listed times (and tap “Save” if that button is shown).

That’s it! After the snooze period is over, all the notifications that came in during that time will appear. Unfortunately, snoozing doesn’t work for all apps, so your results may vary. Keep that in mind when trying out this feature.