Learn how to stop incoming notifications for calls, texts and apps from pausing music playback on your iPhone or lowering the volume in your car.
Incoming notifications temporarily lower media volume to prominently play the alert sound. This can disrupt the song you’re listening to or the video being watched. If you’re hosting a party, you’ll want to stop notifications from interrupting music playback. As the tutorial below explains, you have a few options at your disposal so try all the listed techniques to find one that works best for you.
Turn on silent mode
Silent mode is the easiest way to prevent app and text notifications from messing with your music or podcast. Set your iPhone or iPad to silent or mute mode to have notifications delivered quietly. New alerts won’t make a sound or light up the Lock Screen, allowing your music to continue playing without no drop in the volume.
However, notifications from people for whom you’ve turned on Emergency Bypass will still lower music volume, even if your iPhone is in silent mode. The same goes for critical alerts, like the Home app alerting you about a smoke detector going off, or time-sensitive notifications, like the Health app reminding you to take your medicine on time.
Keep the chat open
When listening to music while texting, stay within the chat to have new message notifications delivered quietly without lowering the music volume. If you exit the chat screen, notifications will affect music playback.
Turn off notification sounds
If you frequently receive notifications from a particular app, you can turn on alert sounds for it in Settings > Notifications; select the app in the list and turning off the Sounds switch to have all notifications from this app delivered quietly.
Mute all notifications with Do Not Disturb mode
Do Not Disturb (DND) is a built-in Focus mode which mutes all notifications and turns off alert sounds and vibrations to ensure they don’t wake the device. If you’re hosting a party, turn on DND in the Control Center to mute all distractions. You can later find all your missed calls, texts, and notifications on the Lock Screen.
Silence specific notifications with a Focus mode
Do Not Disturb mutes everything by default, but you can customize it or set up a dedicated Focus mode to allow notifications from specific people or apps while silencing everything else.
Stoping notifications from lowering the volume in your car
If your iPhone is playing music through your car’s speakers via CarPlay or Bluetooth, incoming notifications will temporarily lower in-car volume. Turn on Driving Focus mode on your iPhone to mute all call, text and app notifications, reducing distractions while driving.
You can also stop specific apps like WhatsApp or Messages from sending notifications on CarPlay. Go to Settings > Notifications, select the app, and turn off the Show in CarPlay switch. The above tips like activating Do Not Disturb will also stop notifications from reducing music volume in the car.
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