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The Shortcuts app is the hub of automation on your iPhone, but it also sends a lot of notifications. Disabling notifications for Shortcuts isn't straightforward, and we're going to show you how to get that done.

Like us, if you have several automations set up on iPhone, your Notification Center may be full of alerts telling you that an automation is running. In case you tend to forget that you've set up automations, these alerts act as useful reminders. You won't have to guess why your Apple Watch face keeps changing randomly through the day, thanks to Shortcuts notifications.

If you're not a fan of the repeated notifications, they can be disabled. We're also going to show you a method to hide the temporary banner notification that shows up when you open apps with custom icons on your iPhone.

Related: What Are iPhone Shortcuts and How Do I Use Them?

Disable Notifications From the Shortcuts App on iPhone

To disable Shortcuts notifications, you'll have to make sure that you have received at least one notification from the app recently. You can't simply disable all notifications from the Shortcuts app as it's not an option in the Settings app. If a notification hasn't appeared recently, create and run any automation on your iPhone and you'll get a notification.

Next, open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap "Screen Time."

Tap Screen Time

Select "See All Activity."

Tap See All Activity

Scroll down to the Notifications section and tap "Show More." Make sure that Shortcuts shows up among the list of apps here.

Tap Show More

At the top, you will see a section called "This Week." Tap the left arrow icon found in the top-left corner. This will change the section name to "Last Week."

Tap the left arrow

Now tap the right arrow icon to bring it back to "This Week." You need to do this because sometimes tapping the Shortcuts option won't do anything. Going back to the previous week and returning to the present in Screen Time settings fixes this issue.

Tap the right arrow

Choose the "Shortcuts" option.

Tap Shortcuts

Toggle off the switch next to "Allow Notifications" to stop alerts for Shortcuts.

Disable Allow Notifications

This will get rid of notifications for automations on your iPhone. You will still see temporary banner notifications (which don't show up in the Notification Center) for your Siri Shortcuts. This means that you will be able to see progress bars and other prompts for shortcuts as usual.

Disable Notifications for Custom App Icons on iPhone

You'll see a temporary notification whenever you launch an app with a custom app icon (which is essentially a bookmark for an app on your home screen) on your iPhone. It is possible to get rid of this using an automation.

The caveat is that you'll have to create a new automation for each bookmark you have. If your iPhone uses a heavily modified Home Screen with a lot of custom app icons, then you'll find this task quite cumbersome. Since we're committed to this task, we're going to show you how to get rid of app launch notifications for custom app icons.

Related: How Do Icon Packs Work on iPhone?

Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and choose the "Automation" tab at the bottom of the screen.

Tap Automation

Tap the "+" icon in the top-right corner.

Tap Plus icon

Select "Create Personal Automation."

Tap Create Personal Automation

Scroll down and hit "App."

Tap App

Now tap "Choose" and select any app for which you've saved a bookmark with a custom icon. In our case, we selected Mail.

Select Mail

Select "Done."

Tap Done

Make sure that "Is Opened" is selected and then hit "Next."

Tap Is Opened

Select "Add Action."

Tap Add Action
Tap Add Action

You can now choose any action that you like. Ideally, you should choose something that doesn't make any changes in the app because the goal is just to stop the banner notification from showing up. We selected "Text."

Tap Text

Tap the "Next" button.

Tap Next

Make sure you've disabled "Ask Before Running."

Disable Ask Before Running

Hit "Done."

Tap Done

You can now tap the custom app icon and the banner notification will not appear. If it does, force quit the app you selected and the Shortcuts app. Then hit the custom app icon again and you'll get the desired result.


Now that you've disabled notification from the Shortcuts app, you should check out how to use Shortcuts on the Apple Watch.

Related: How to Use Shortcuts on Apple Watch