Most sports aficionados use third-party apps to follow their team’s results live. But some did get tangled with Google Sports, and tweaking Sports, my friends, can challenge your nerves. If you don’t know where to look. Namely, some users report that they are getting Google Sports notifications for teams that they didn’t follow. Some of them want to manage these and fix the problem (like this user on Google Forums), while others want Google Sports to cease notifying them completely. We have both covered, so make sure to check our instructions below.
How do I get rid of Google Sports notifications?
There are two ways (that we’re aware of) to disable or manage Google Sports notifications for certain teams (e.g. LA Lakers or Real Madrid CF) or competitions (e.g. NBA or Champions League). If you want them all gone, you can just disable notifications in system settings and you’ll never hear from Google Sports. On the other hand, if you like to get notifications but only for certain teams or competitions, you’ll need to get through Interests and remove all unnecessary teams and/or competitions there.
For such a big company that’s feeding voraciously on data, Google doesn’t do well with UI and some things are hard to find unless you dig deep. Google Sports are an obvious example of the anti-intuitive design practice.
Stop being notified about certain teams in Google Sports
Now, let’s start by explaining the management before we explain how to disable Google Sports notifications completely. Here’s what you need to do to remove teams/competitions:
- Open the Google app.
- Search for Sports.
- You should see a list of teams and competitions you are following.
- Tap on the competition that you follow but need notifications only about a single team. Let’s say NBA (National Basketball League) and Chicago Bulls.
- Tap on Notifications.
- Just tap on the teams that you are currently following but don’t want to be notified about. You want the bell icon to be disabled. As you can see in this example, we also have notifications for Bucks and Cavaliers enabled at first but then we disable them and stick only with Bulls.
This applies to all competitions, leagues, cups, tournaments, etc. Now, after that, you should get notified about live results and news about the team of choice only, not a whole group of teams or the whole league.
If you want to remove team updates from Google Discover (-1 Home Screen), you need to tap on your Account (Profile) photo at the top right corner and open Settings. Once there, open Channels & Interests. Select Your interests and uncheck anything that you don’t want to follow anymore.
How to disable Google Sports notifications in Settings
On the other hand, if you want to ditch Google Sports notifications completely, you can simply disable them in Settings. There are two ways to go about this but the simpler one should be navigating to Settings > Apps > Google > Notifications > Notification categories and disabling the Sports toggle. With that, you won’t get any notifications in that category from the Google app.
With that said, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and we hope that the information provided here helped you set notifications for Google Sports to your preferences. What are your thoughts on the way Google utilizes these features? Tell us in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in July 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
FAQ
How do I get rid of my interests on Google?
To get rid of your interests, open the Google App or Google Discover, tap on the account and then open Settings. Once there, tap Channels & Interests, then select Your interests. You can add recommended interests or remove the ones you dislike from the list.
