Disable notifications for specific apps with a shortcut

iOS
#1

Hi there,
I work for a software company and we have an own app, so I sometimes need to present to customers using my iPhone. In that situation I need push notifications from our own app, but I would like to avoid notifications from WhatsApp, Facebook, email and so on.
So my goal is to disable notifications for these specific apps, ideally with a shortcut. So that I’ll be able to enable them again after my presentation.
Unfortunately the apple shortcuts app doesn’t support to set notifications for other apps.

Do you guys have experience with that? I already looked at ‘Scriptable’ and ‘Pythonista’, but for me it appears that these apps don’t have permissions for settings like this. (Though, I’m not a developer).

Thanks for you help,
Viktor

#2

Shortcuts doesn’t have the ability to toggle such settings. You may be able to create a shortcut that takes you directly to the Notifications section in Settings, but you’d still have to manually toggle on/off.

#3

Hi,
Thanks for your answer. OK, I assumed that.
Are apps in general not allowed to toggle such settings? Or could there be one (theoretically) that could do it? Or a script app?

#4

Apps are sandboxed and allowing an app to override another app’s settings, or even its own notifications enable me to settings, like this would be a security and a usability issue. Imagine a competitor’s app being able to turn your notifications off and it’s notifications on even though a user set it up the other way around.

#5

Right, got it.
So I guess my only solution is to wait for Apple to support these settings with the shortcut app.

Thanks!

#6

I’ve a feeling Federico might’ve found the URL scheme to do this. He found dozens related to Settings, IIRC.

#7

Federico’s page with Settings URL schemes is indispensible. The URL scheme to jump directly to Notifications Settings is prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID, but after you get there, you have to do all the turning on and off by hand.

2 Likes
#8

Alright, I see. Thank you

#9

Hi, I am looking for a similar idea like in this post. Has there been a solution at all?

I have another post with my issue at this link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/need-a-simple-iphone-macro-to-enable-disable-notifications.2248070/

Can you please tell me if you have found an automatic way to be able to Enable & Disable Notifications for certain apps, whenever I need to do that?

Thanks

#10

Hi,

No, unfortunately I didn’t find a solution. It seems not to be possible at this point of time.
However, I created a feature-request at Apple. If you may do the same, the probability is higher that we get such a functionality with Shortcuts :slight_smile:

#11

Could you just use the downtime feature? It’s a toggle switch in settings. You can use it to disable all apps except the ones you want to use during the downtime plus phone calls. You can set the default time to all day and just use the toggle switch to turn it on before a demonstration and off afterward.

#12

I originally signed up to say thanks Travis!!! But then I tried to use safari when in downtime and found you cannot allow it. Therefor I cannot use safari when I am trying to use safari whilst not getting work emails.

Well I can but I have to allow every website that I click on. It very annoying.

Crazy setting in apple settings.

Thanks anyway Travis.

#13

I think this will never happen as it violates the fundamental security design of iOS. The user has to make the changes for an app, not another app. You can see, with a little thought, what a disaster it would be to allow a app to modify the settings from other apps. Would you want the Facebook app to be able to control your notification settings for all applications?

#14

I fouuuuund it!!!

Take:

prefs:root=NOTIFICATIONS_ID&path=ph.telegra.Telegraph

And just implement it as @drdrang said in his post earlier :slight_smile:

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image600×1067 3.56 MB

#15

I’ve got your shortcut working to open the main notification page but how do I specify an app like you did with WhatsApp etc. At the moment I have to scroll through and find the app to then go and turn notifications off after using the short cut - which is better but not perfect.
I’m trying to use this for the bbc sport app

Thanks

#16

Oh that’s where it gets to be real fun:

You will just need to exchange the identifier, in my example above it’s the part saying ph.telegra.Telegraph.

And here is how you can find the identifier of the app you want to target:

Finding an app’s bundle identifier in AppStore

1. Find the app you are looking for on the Apple AppStore. For this example, we’ll use Yelp:
htps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yelp/id284910350?mt=8

2. Copy the app ID number. It’s just the numbers after the text “id” and before the “?”. So in this case, it is: 284910350.

3. Paste that ID number into this URL:
htps://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=284910350

4. Search the output you get back for “bundleId”. The app’s bundle ID will be listed there: com.yelp.yelpiphone

—> Detailed explanation from here: Acronis Mobility: Finding an iOS App's Bundle Identifier | Knowledge Base

2 Likes
#17

Would you mind sharing the next steps? I did everything you said, and I got the bundleid, but from there how do I get the shortcut to toggle the Allow Notifications button either ON or OFF?

Ideally I would create 2 of these shortcuts so I could run one to turn the specific notification ON, and one to turn it OFF.

Thanks!!

#18

Oh…
There are no next steps.
I couldn’t get any closer to a quick on/off toggle then that.
Maybe there is a magic command you could add to the end of the URL scheme, but I am not enough of a witch to know that.
But please share if you discover it :blush:

#19

Just to confirm, that isn’t possible. It is only a shortcut to the section. It does not offer greater granularity to set individual settings. In fact we have even had OS updates break and change the section links in the past, so setting individual settings via URL I doubt is a priority at Apple if it is even a consideration.

#20

Just guessing, but if you’re still interested in this, the new Focus modes in iOS 15 could probably address this requirement.

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