How to turn off notifications on X (every type)

#Quick answer

To turn off notifications on X, open Settings and privacy, then Notifications, then Preferences. Push notifications and Email notifications are separate screens with their own per-category toggles, so you have to visit both. Your phone's own notification permission for the X app is a third, independent switch, and the in-app Notifications tab keeps filling up regardless of all of them. There is no master off button, which is the single thing most guides on this query get wrong.

Last updated: September 2026

#Why one switch never works

People search for how to turn off notifications on X (formerly Twitter) after they have already tried. They flipped something, the buzzing continued, and they assumed the setting was broken.

It usually is not. X runs four channels that look like one thing from the outside:

Switch off push and the emails keep coming. Switch off email and the phone keeps buzzing. Switch off both inside the app and the operating system may still let a stray alert through after an update resets a permission. Understanding that split solves about ninety percent of the frustration behind this search.

#Turn off push notifications on X

This is the one people mean first, and it is the same path on every platform.

On iPhone and Android: tap your profile picture, then Settings and privacy, then Notifications, then Preferences, then Push notifications. X's own mobile notifications page describes exactly this route. You will get a long list of categories, each with its own toggle:

• Likes, Reposts, New followers, Mentions and replies, Direct messages
• Recommendations, Topics, News, Live broadcasts, Spaces
• Emergency alerts, Product and X news

Turning the whole thing off is a single master toggle at the top of that screen. Turning most of it off, and keeping what matters, is the better move for anyone whose account is part of their work.

On the web: click More in the left sidebar, then Settings and Support, then Settings and privacy, then Notifications, then Preferences, then Push notifications. Desktop browser notifications are their own permission too, granted to x.com by Chrome or Safari rather than by X, so if alerts persist in the browser, revoke the site permission there.

At the operating system level: iOS Settings, Notifications, X, Allow Notifications off. On Android, Settings, Apps, X, Notifications. This is the nuclear option and the only one nothing inside X can override.

#Turn off email notifications on X

Email is configured separately and catches people out constantly. Go to Settings and privacy, Notifications, Preferences, Email notifications. There is a master toggle at the top of that screen, and beneath it a list of the things X will mail you about: your posts being reposted or liked, mentions, new followers, and contacts joining X, among others.

One useful detail: the master toggle here kills activity email but not everything. Security and account emails, such as a login alert or a password reset, are not marketing and keep arriving. That is correct behaviour and you want it, especially if you have ever had to work through an X account that got hacked.

#The recommendation notifications everyone complains about

The most common version of this complaint is about the alerts for posts you did not ask for, from accounts you do not follow. X calls these recommendations.

There is a documented control. Under Settings and privacy, Notifications, Preferences, Push notifications, uncheck the box next to Recommendations. X's help page on recommendation notifications spells out that checkbox in both directions, on and off.

Here is the honest limit, and it is why threads full of people saying "there is no way to turn these off" keep going. X states that it shares recommendations through push notifications, through your Notifications tab, and by adding them to your For you timeline. The checkbox governs the push. The tab and the timeline are separate surfaces, so unchecking it reduces the interruptions without emptying the tab. The second lever X gives you is feedback: tap the three dots on a recommended item and choose See less often, which X lists alongside your recent engagement as an input into how often it sends them.

If the recommendations themselves are the problem rather than the alerts, the underlying system is worth understanding. We cover what drives it in how the X algorithm works.

#Filters and muted notifications: the quieter fix

Before you turn everything off, look at the filters. They remove noise without removing signal, and they sit under Settings and privacy, Notifications, Filters.

Quality filter. X describes it as filtering lower-quality content from your notifications, such as duplicate posts or content that appears to be automated, while explicitly not filtering notifications from people you follow or accounts you have recently interacted with. It is on by default if you are new to X or have reinstalled the app. Leave it on.

Advanced filters. These switch off notifications from categories of accounts you do not follow: new accounts, accounts with no profile photo, accounts that have not confirmed an email address or a phone number, and similar. They are the right tool for reply-spam, and they never touch people you follow.

Muted words and muted accounts. You can mute specific words and phrases so they never appear in your notifications, and mute individual accounts including ones you follow. Muting is silent to the other person, which is the point. The mechanics are in how to mute someone on X, and when muting is not strong enough, how to block someone on X covers the harder line.

For reply spam specifically, restricting who can answer you in the first place stops the notification before it exists. That control is per post and covered in how to change who can reply on X.

#The setup a working account should actually run

Turning everything off is the wrong answer if your account does anything for you. You lose the replies that matter along with the noise.

A configuration that holds up for founders, creators and anyone building an audience:

• Push on: Mentions and replies, Direct messages. That is it.
• Push off: Likes, Reposts, Recommendations, Topics, News, Live broadcasts, Spaces, Product news.
• Email off entirely, except the security mail you cannot disable anyway.
• Quality filter on, advanced filters on for accounts with no confirmed email or phone.
• Notifications tab checked on a schedule, not on every buzz. Twice a day beats forty interruptions.

The reason to keep mentions is that replying quickly is one of the few things that reliably compounds on this platform. The reason to kill the rest is that a like notification has never once changed what you do next.

That tension is the real problem underneath this search. The work that grows an account, showing up in other people's replies consistently, is exactly the work that notifications interrupt. If you would rather that engagement happened on a schedule than on impulse, an agent that runs it from your own machine is one answer. X-Autopilot drafts and posts replies in your voice from your own browser session, so the engagement continues while your phone stays quiet. It runs locally rather than from a shared cloud account, which means a smaller detection surface than cloud schedulers, though no tool removes account risk, and browser-based engagement is a gray area rather than a sanctioned API path. Read X's Automation rules before you rely on unattended actions.

#What turning notifications off does not do

Three things people expect that do not happen:

It does not hide your activity. Muting, filtering and disabling alerts change what you see, not what others see. Nobody is told you muted them or that their reply never reached you.

It does not stop the Notifications tab filling. The tab is a timeline, not an alert. Everything still lands there.

It does not slow your account down. Notifications are a delivery mechanism, not a ranking input. Your reach depends on what you post and who engages, which is why timing your posts well moves numbers and a silent phone does not.

#The short version

Visit two screens, not one: Preferences, Push notifications, and Preferences, Email notifications. Uncheck Recommendations if the unsolicited alerts are what pushed you to search this. Turn the quality filter on and add advanced filters for unconfirmed accounts. Then keep mentions and DMs alive, because those are the ones worth the interruption, and check the tab on your schedule rather than X's.

#Internal links

• X account hacked? How to get it back
• How the X algorithm works
• How to mute someone on X
• How to block someone on X
• How to change who can reply on X
• Best time to post on X
• Download X-Autopilot