How to Mute and Unmute Text Messages on Android

Notification management on Android is one of the system’s strong suits. You can customize notifications in so many ways, to the tiniest details in all apps. With the RCS slowly but steadily taking off, Android Messages suddenly become a more versatile messaging app. So, now, along with SMS and MMS messages, you can chat over Wi-Fi and do much more. This also might bring a surge of new notifications and you probably want to know how to mute or unmute text messages on Android.

We have a thorough explanation below so make sure to check it out.

Table of contents:

1. Mute/unmute all messages
2. Change notification settings for each conversation
3. Enable Do Not Disturb

How do I mute and unmute text messages on Android?

You can mute and unmute text messages on Android in general or do it for certain conversations. The settings you’re looking for are in the Messages settings. Learn how to employ them below.

1. Mute/unmute all messages

If you want to mute or unmute all text messages instead of an individual conversation, you can do that with ease in system settings. You can choose to be notified with a sound or make the system deliver messages silently. If you want, you can enable vibration or disable it or choose to show incoming messages as pop-ups or bubbles.

Here’s how to mute/unmute all text messages on Android Messages:

1. Open Messages.
2. Tap on the 3-dots menu and open Settings.
3. Tap Notifications.
4. Select Deliver quietly to mute messages.
5. If you want to get into more detail, open Incoming messages. There you should see additional notification settings including pop-ups, notification sound, vibration, icon badges, and lock screen notification settings.

If you didn’t know, Pop-ups are short-lasting banners that will appear on any screen when you receive a message. Icon badges appear on the Messages icon if you have any unopened messages. And, bubbles are Facebook Messenger-like chat heads that are always on top and allow you to access and reply to conversations faster.

However, the aforementioned setting applies to all messages and that might not work for everyone. If you want to mute or unmute an individual or group conversation while being notified of other messages, there’s a way to do it.

2. Change notification settings for each conversation

If you want to mute text messages from certain contacts and be alerted for the rest, you can do that in Messages settings in a few simple steps. Not all messages are equally important, especially with all the promotional SMSs that many of us get daily. It gets annoying fast and, although we might want to see these messages, we don’t need to be immediately alerted.

Here’s how to change notification settings for an individual conversation in Android Messages:

1. Open Messages.
2. Open the conversation you want to mute.
3. Tap on the 3-dots menu and select Details.
4. Choose Notifications.
5. Now, you can choose to put this contact/sender as a Priority, keep the Alert option, or put it on Silent. In addition, you can enable/disable bubbles, pop-ups, and icon badges, and choose to show or hide incoming messages from the lock screen.

3. Enable Do Not Disturb

The Do Not Disturb mode is great when, well, you don’t want to be disturbed. But what if you want to block 90% of incoming notifications but still allow text messages or calls from certain contacts? There are DND exceptions that can help you do just that.

So, if you want to mute everything but unmute text messages from important contacts, follow these instructions:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Select Do Not Disturb.
4. Under Exceptions, select Calls, messages, and conversations.
5. Tap Messages and select either All, Contacts Only, or Favorite contacts only. You can select your favorite contacts in the Contacts app.

This can come in handy if you need to get messages from your family members or close friends while muting all other notifications on your Android device.

That should do it. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your questions or suggestions in the comments section below. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in January 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.