How to Turn Off Blue Alerts on an iPhone

The fact is that these alerts are necessary to help save lives. They warn us about dangerous weather, child abductions and other emergencies that could potentially affect our safety.

But sometimes, it can be frustrating when your phone constantly vibrates or rings. You might want to turn off these notifications and enjoy a cleaner lock screen.

1. Go to Settings

The iPhone comes with a ton of settings that let you customize the way it works and how much data it shares with apps. But it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start. The best place to start is by going to Settings on your iPhone. The settings app provides quick access to a number of different features that control how your phone functions, including notifications, privacy, and security.

The settings app can be accessed by tapping the icon on your home screen or opening it from your iPhone’s app drawer. Once you’re in the settings app, you can choose from a variety of options to set your preferences for everything from your ringtone and text tone to lock sounds and calendar alerts. You can also adjust the brightness of your iPhone’s display, set wallpaper and more.

But if you’re tired of hearing your phone buzzing throughout the day, you can use the settings to create custom Focus Modes that block less important notifications while allowing priority items to come through. This lets you stay focused on the tasks at hand while still staying connected to friends and family.

While it’s important to keep yourself informed in times of crisis, you should know that certain types of emergency alerts cannot be disabled. These include Presidential alerts, emergency public safety alerts and Amber Alerts. If you want to stop receiving these alerts, you can do so by navigating to your device’s Settings app, scrolling down to Notifications and then tapping Government Alerts. By default, these alerts are set to on/green but you can turn them off by changing the slider to off/white. If you’re not receiving these alerts, but you’re getting Silver or Blue Alerts (which are issued to alert people when adults go missing) you can silence those by using the same method as above.

2. Scroll down to Notifications

The easiest way to disable emergency alerts and other government notifications on your iPhone is through your settings. Tap Notifications, then scroll down to Government Alerts and use the slider switches to enable or disable what you want. Keep in mind that silencing your iPhone or enabling Do Not Disturb mode doesn’t silence government-issued alerts, such as AMBER and Presidential Alerts, nor does it change their tone.

In order to get the most out of your iPhone’s notification center, it’s a good idea to set an overall “notification style” that governs how notifications appear and what apps can show them on your lock screen. For example, you may want to leave notifications on for apps that provide critical information you need to act upon, such as your home security system, phone, Messages and other messaging apps, and Wallet. You can also enable notifications for apps that provide helpful content, like News and Weather.

To change the notification style, swipe an app’s icon on your home screen and select the Notifications option (it looks like a stack of icons). You can also access this view by tapping the button in the bottom-right corner of your iPhone or iPad. From here, you can see all of your recent notifications grouped by days and apps. You can even scroll up to see deleted notifications. If you want to clear all of your notifications, just tap Clear. This doesn’t clear your iCloud backup or anything else, so it’s a good idea to back up your phone regularly. This can be done by using a reliable iPhone recovery tool, like Apeaksoft iOS System Recovery. It’s compatible with all the latest iPhone modes and can help recover your iOS devices when they’re disabled, frozen, or in recovery mode.

3. Tap Government Alerts

If you want to disable emergency government alerts on your iPhone, you can do so in the Settings app. Note, however, that this will prevent you from receiving AMBER Alerts and other important notifications. It will also disable severe weather alerts (which may not be a good idea in an active hurricane). You will still receive test emergency alerts and presidential alerts.

Government alerts are designed to get your attention, fast. They can be loud and alarming, which is exactly what they’re meant to do. They’re also meant to override your silent mode or do not disturb functionality and to always come through, even if your phone is locked.

These kinds of alerts include things like Amber Alerts, which tell you when someone is missing and authorities believe the person could be in your area; Emergency Alerts, which let you know about dangerous situations such as a tornado or hurricane; and Public Safety Alerts, which can be about missing children or terrorist attacks. They can also include information about how to respond or how to prepare for an event.

If you want to turn off the ability to receive these kinds of alerts, open the Settings app and scroll down to Notifications. Then tap the Government Alerts switch to toggle it off. You can return to having these alerts enabled at any time. It is important to note, though, that these kinds of emergency alerts will not stop you from receiving a Presidential Alert, which can’t be disabled on an iPhone. You can also download a variety of severe weather alert apps from the App Store to get this kind of information. The CDC offers a handy guide to prepare for a disaster that includes tips on how to make an emergency plan.

4. Tap Emergency Alerts

You can turn off emergency alerts and other government notifications on an iPhone. These include AMBER Alerts, evacuation notices, and national emergencies like natural disasters, a pandemic, or civil unrest. By default, these alerts can be extremely loud and shocking, especially if you’re sleeping or driving. That’s because they’re designed to get your attention instantly, and a big, loud alarm is the best way to do that. But some people find these alerts irritating or distracting, and that’s why there is a way to disable them.

The most common way to shut off these alerts is to go to Settings, then scroll down and tap Notifications. You’ll see a section at the bottom of the screen called Government Alerts. Here, you can toggle off AMBER Alerts and Public Safety Alerts, which will disable the jarring sounds associated with them. You can still receive these kinds of alerts via text message, but you won’t hear any grating squawking sounds when they appear on your screen.

Another option is to go to the Notifications app, then swipe down and tap “Allow Alerts.” Here you can disable all types of alerts, including Blue Alerts. It’s important to note that if you disable emergency alerts, you will also be unable to receive presidential notifications, which are not governed by the same settings.

You can also download severe weather alert apps to avoid having to deal with these jarring alerts. The app Storm Shield provides weather-based warnings of tornado, hurricane, flood, thunderstorm, and winter storms. It’s available for free and is compatible with all iPhones, including the latest models like the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max. For more tips and tricks, check out our guide on how to fix an iPhone that isn’t charging fast.

5. Tap Blue Alerts

If you are concerned about the safety of your family members or want to be sure that you’re receiving only emergency alerts that are important to you, it’s possible to disable Blue Alerts on an iPhone. However, disabling this type of alert may also disable other government-issued notifications that you would want to receive, so it’s best not to do that unless necessary.

On an iPhone, you can edit your emergency alerts by opening the Settings app, tapping Notifications, and scrolling down to the Government Alerts section at the bottom of the screen. Here you can set your Amber, Emergency, and Public Safety alerts to be on or off, but by default they are all on.

When you turn off these types of emergency alerts, you will still receive the same information on inclement weather or other government-issued notifications, but they won’t be accompanied by loud notification sounds. The sound of an AMBER alert will instead be replaced with a vibration or a message that says “Details coming soon.” If you don’t want to turn off emergency alerts but don’t want the audible notification sounds, you can always use your phone’s Do Not Disturb mode to silence calls, notifications, and other app alerts.

It’s also worth noting that even if you disable all emergency alerts, you can receive Presidential Alerts, which are considered to be the most important and urgent. They are also the only alerts that will ignore your ring/silent switch and any Do Not Disturb settings on your iPhone. You can find these alerts on your home screen by tapping the Notification Center and looking for a banner that says “Presidential Alerts” or the icon of an envelope with a speech bubble inside.