Disable the Red Notification Badge on App Icons on iPhone or iPad
Don’t want to see the red badge notifications appear on iOS app icons anymore when an alert or notification has arrived for that app? You may have noticed that some apps display red notification badges on their app icons on iPhone and iPad, and though they’re certainly useful for many apps, if you’re not a fan of these visual alert indicators, then you can disable these badge notifications and stop them from appearing on any app icons. Once turned off, they will no longer be visible on the icons at all, whether the apps are sitting in the iPhone or iPad’s Dock or just stored on the home screen.
For reference, iOS refers to these as “Badge App Icons” and they must be turned off on a per application basis, so here is how to do exactly that:
How to Turn Off Badge App Icons for Any App on iPhone & iPad
This works the same in all versions of iOS for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:
- Open the “Settings” app
- Tap on “Notifications”
- Scroll down and select the app you want to disable the badge notifications for
- Swipe “Badge App Icon” to OFF
- Repeat to disable for other apps
As an example, here’s what disabling the red badge icons for an email client in a modern version of iOS for iPhone looks like:
The effect of an app icon before and after toggling this switch is the removal of the red icon with the number on it, that’s the “Badge App Icon” as iOS calls it:
This is the option you are looking for on a per-app basis, the default setting is always ON, thus toggling it to OFF will turn off the red badge icons that sit atop the app icon in iOS.
Exit out of Settings when finished and you’ll find the adjustment has taken place instantly, meaning any existing red badges will have disappeared from those apps icons, whether or not the alerts or notifications have been read or addressed.
Here’s how this looks in prior versions of iOS, modern versions of iOS look a bit different as you’ve seen above. Nonetheless, turning off red badge icons is the same.
The badge icons are styled a bit differently in modern versions of iOS vs the prior versions, but again it works the same:
Note that you can disable the red app badge but still have the application show alerts in the older pop-up variety, and also continue to have the apps show in Notification Center when an alert or event occurs.
The obvious downside to disabling these notification icon badges is that it makes it easier to miss out on important alerts, whether it’s a missed phone call, new emails and the unread email number, new iMessages, available app updates, or the other myriad of possibilities that are so frequently conveyed through those little red buttons. For this reason, it’s probably best to leave them enabled for apps you really need new notifications for (like Mail or Phone), and only turn them off for apps where you find the number count less useful, or if the count is so high and overwhelming that the utitily of the number has become useless. If you do disable them for an app you use frequently, remember to be extra diligent in checking those apps manually for updates and new information.
Once the red icon badges have been turned off you’ll find the home screen and iOS Dock to be quite a bit more minimalist, for better or worse. If you decide the change isn’t for you, you can always revert the feature back to its default settings by returning to the Settings app and flipping the “Badge App Icon” feature back to ON for each app that sends notifications.
By the way, for Mac users, you can also turn off the little red icons for OS X apps too.
Help… I just got the iPhone 11 – and my red dot does not appear. I’ve tried turning on and off the “badge app icon” done a couple of test from my desktop and still not showing. I’ve even hard reset my phone. Im not sure what i am doing wrong! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
It’s impossible because “aPPLE” doesn’t care at all about it’s customers. People have been asking “aPPLE” to give us the ability to turn off that stupid red badge on settings and “aPPLE,” through their silence for over 15 years, has essentially told us to shut up and keep buying over priced phones and not to worry about that trivial stuff. I sold my iPhone and bought an Android os phone and I’m much happier with it. Guess what? No red badge on settings and the phone was one $150 new. “aPPLE” doesn’t care about us.
Help! An icon(?) called Ringer appears constantly on my I phone. It stays in the middle of my screen. Very annoying. By pushing the sound button I can increase the sound volume; but, it immediately goes back to minimal columns. The icon Ringer stays on my screen blocking the middle of my screen. How do I get rid of this annoying “thing” and how can I keep the volume at maximum (I am hard of hearing). Suggestions appreciated.
Take the iPhone out of it’s case, or check to see if something is stuck in the ports or stuck pressing on the volume buttons. The ringer thing appears when the volume is being changed. Something is likely pressing the buttons.
Very helpful and useful! Thank you!
How to remove update badge icon from setting like I don’t want to update my device to new version
[…] your home screen will be much less distracting with most of these little red icon additions turned off.
I will never turn off notifications in general, or badges
[…] same trick can be done in iOS too if you’re tired of seeing the red badges on the home screen of your iPad, iPhone, or iPod […]
Hmm. Not all my apps are listed in the notification list. How do I modify the ones not listed from displaying the red badge?
Too bad this doesn’t work with the App store. There are a number of Apps I wait on before updating.
@JJm – Yeah if you’re jailbroken there’s a cydia tweak for that called NoOTA (No Over The Air) which basically stops the red number one from appearing on your settings app.