The sound of silence: how to turn off or block browser notifications

When you’re online, it seems like every website has an endless supply of push notifications. These can be helpful if you’re waiting for plane tickets to drop in price, following the news, or expecting an important email. But do you really need a browser notification for every merchant’s online sale?

Too many notifications can be a distraction when you need to focus, or they can be just plain frustrating. Thankfully, Microsoft Edge makes it easy to turn off browser notifications.

How to turn off Microsoft Edge notifications

One of the features of Microsoft Edge is that it will ask your permission before allowing any website to send notifications. But if you’d like them to stop cluttering up your browsing experience, follow these steps to turn off push notifications:

Once you’ve launched Microsoft Edge, click the three dots in the upper right corner of the browser, then choose Settings.
Use the left pane to scroll down to Cookies and site permissions.
Within the Site permissions menu, select Notifications.
Toggle the switch next to Ask before sending. This will block all browser notifications within Microsoft Edge.

How to turn off notifications for specific websites

Let’s say you don’t want any notifications from retailers, but you would like to allow certain sites to show notifications. Microsoft Edge lets you create a tailored list of which sites are allowed to notify you. Here’s how to turn off notifications for some sites while leaving them on for others:

In your Microsoft Edge browser, click the three dots in the upper right corner to open the menu, then select Settings.
Scroll down to Cookies and site permissions.
You’ll notice three separate blocks. The top one allows you to block all notifications, the middle one allows you to choose which sites you would like to always block notifications from, and the bottom lets you create a list of sites that are approved to notify you. In the Block section, select Add.
Type the URL of the website that you’d like to add to the blocked list.
Click Add.

This process can certainly feel tedious, and you may not remember all the sites that you’d like to block versus the ones you’d like to keep. Adding each site individually might not be worth your time. Here’s a faster way to block notifications from certain websites:

In the Cookies and site permissions menu, scroll to Site permissions and select All sites.
This will open a list of all the websites you’ve visited with the Microsoft Edge browser. It allows you to see which of them are sending you notifications.
Click the arrow next to any website you don’t want notifications from.
Select Block under Notifications when the menu pops up.
Repeat this as many times as needed, for as many site’s notifications as you’d like to block.

Turning off browser notifications can save you from distractions while you’re working, but it can easily be reversed if you disable a notification by mistake. These simple steps will allow you to focus without being prompted to pull your attention elsewhere, at least as far as your browser is concerned. Modern browsers make it as simple as a few clicks. Try Microsoft Edge and discover what it’s like to go online without distractions.