We are currently disassembling Apple’s Podcasts app here on iDB, turning over every rock in iOS to help you make the most of what the seemingly basic app has to offer. After walking you through automatic downloads for your favorite shows earlier this week, we’re back with another slick little trick designed to cut down unwanted notification clutter perpetrated by the app.
Because notwithstanding your fondness for the dozen podcasts you love to zap through, collectively they sure can generate a bevy of notifications on your iPhone. Speaking from experience, the crux of the matter is that some of these notifications are much more hotly anticipated (e.g. surprise releases) than others (daily shows), which means neither leaving all podcasts notifications activated nor fully switching them off is going to genuinely cut the mustard for most users.
If you have made it this far, you will already have an inkling that there is luckily enough a much more satisfying middle way. And thankfully, you called it right. The square, purple icon on your Home screen itself holds the answers we need when it comes to selectively dumping the episode-drop notifications. So in the interest of a tidy Notification Center and minimal maintenance efforts, here’s how to remain in control of podcast notifications by toggling off the ones that have been bugging you for too long.
Flatly turning off notifications from your Podcasts app in Settings is one way of coping with the barrage of new episode reminders popping up day in and day out. It is in fact a pretty common conclusion listeners eventually arrive at, simply because often times the bad outweighs the good, the pesky notifications drown the few ones you are looking forward to finally roll in. While this is a tradeoff you might have begrudgingly agreed to making some time ago, let me tell you that in iOS, this last resort type of action is frankly not needed. So how about we get you back in the Podcasts notifications game, except this time you’re only going to get signed up for the show reminders you actually want to receive?
How do I turn off notifications for selected podcast subscriptions?
1) First off, we need to ensure overall permission is (again) given for the Podcasts app to display notifications. Therefore, open Settings on your Home screen.
2) Not too far down the list, tap Notifications.
3) Open Podcasts.
4) Be sure to toggle on Allow Notifications as well as the remaining three switches. The standard alert style for notifications is Banners, double-check it is locked in.
If you have not previously meddled with individual podcast’s notifications, across the board your podcasts will now by default send out notifications again. Time to change that and seperate the wheat from the chaff!
5) With the ground work completed, exit the Settings app and pop open your Podcasts app.
6) Go to the My Podcasts tab. Operating on the premise that all your podcasts currently do display notifications, take stock of the podcasts you no longer want to nag you.
7) Once you have worked it out, select the first podcast that you want to dismiss the notifications for. In this example, I have decided that I want to remain a subscriber of Stuff You Should Know, but am increasingly growing tired of the constant notifications.
8) On the podcast’s main page, locate the little cog left of the ‘share’ icon and touch it.
9) We have gotten to the bottom of it. You will notice a tab for Subscribed and Notifications each, the yin and yang of the Podcasts app. Leave the Subscribe tab untouched, however do flick off the Notifications switch to mute the unwanted notifications for this particular show.
10) With the first lever on and the second off, hit Done in the top right corner to save the setting.
11) Kudos, you’re still signed up for your podcast of choice but have silenced the relentless episode reminders. Incidentally, this setting also pertains to the app’s badges.
Now we have walked you through it once, apply your newly acquired knowledge to all the other podcasts you want to stop taking up space in your Notification Center.
As a general rule, you might want to consider deactivating notifications from shows that release their episodes like clockwork anyway, or the ones that drop just too many too rapidly to keep up with. Conversely, leaving them on for shows typically unpredictable in their release schedules or rare in numbers makes a lot more sense and the pop ups on your iPhone or iPad actually valuable.
Fortunately, you can have one without the other, so get out there and clamp down on your podcast notifications today!