OS X Yosemite: Notifications preferences

Notifications preferences

Change the apps that use Notification Center, change how an app’s notifications appear in Notification Center, and set when you don’t want to be disturbed by notifications.

To open Notifications preferences, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Notifications.

Notification Center preferences

Do Not Disturb

Turn on Do Not Disturb during a specified time every day, when the display is sleeping, or when projecting your screen.

Also, select to receive calls or repeated calls when Do Not Disturb is on.

In Notification Center list

Not In Notification Center list

Apps that are in the In Notification Center list appear in Notification Center and can be set to send you notifications.

  • If you don’t want to see the app’s notifications in Notification Center or on your screen, drag the app to the Not In Notification Center list, at the bottom.

  • If you want to see the app’s notifications in Notification Center, but don’t want to see them on your screen, select the app, then choose None on the right (below “[App] alert style”).

Sort Notification Center

Choose how apps are sorted in Notification Center:

  • Manually: Apps appear in Notification Center in the order they’re listed in the In Notification Center list. Reorder apps by dragging them up or down in the list.

  • By time: Apps are listed based on notification times.

App notification preferences

To change an app’s notification preferences, select the app on the left, then change the preferences on the right.

[App] alert style

Select a style for the app’s notifications:

  • None: Notifications don’t appear on your screen.

  • Banners: Notifications appear on your screen and disappear after a while.

  • Alerts: Notifications stay on your screen until you dismiss them.

Show notifications on lock screen

When you wake your Mac from sleep, any notifications you received while it was asleep appear in the login window.

Show message preview (if available)

If you receive a message, you can see a preview of the message in the notification. For example, if you receive an email, you can see a preview of the email in the Mail notification.

  • when unlocked: Message previews are included in notifications only when you’re logged in to your user account.

  • always: Message previews always appear.

Show in Notification Center

Choose how many of the app’s recent notifications to list in Notification Center.

Badge app icon

Let the app show the number of notifications on its Dock icon.

Play sound for notifications

Let the app play notification sounds.

Last Modified: Sep 23, 2015
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