How Do I Stop Those Annoying TikTok Live Notifications?

Most TikTok users (not counting content creators and influencers) spend the majority of their time on the social media platform relaxing and enjoying the videos scrolling through their feeds.

It can quickly become aggravating, though, when notifications about new messages, new followers, new comments, and even new posts from people you follow keep appearing on the screen and interrupting your “me” time.

A new type of notification has joined the party: notices that creators have started new TikTok Live streams. They can make surfing the app more annoying than ever.

Is there any way to turn them off?

There sure is. You just have to know exactly where to look.

Differentiating Push and In-App Notifications

We have to start by explaining the difference between the two types of TikTok notifications that can appear at any hour of the day or night.

• In-App Notifications: These are delivered directly in the TikTok app. If you’re not on the platform, you won’t see them.
• Push Notifications: These can be even more troublesome: they’re “pushed” from TikTok directly to your phone or device. Even if you’re logged out of the app and doing something completely different, your phone will still display them.

In-app and push notifications are both controlled from the same general area of your TikTok settings, but you have to know which type of alert you’re trying to prevent (or enable) before making changes.

Disabling TikTok Notification Settings

First, let’s navigate to the proper neighborhood.

1. Open your TikTok profile by tapping the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of your home screen.
2. Click on the three horizontal lines at the top-right of your profile page to open the profile menu.
3. Select “Settings and privacy” from the popup menu.
4. On the next page, find and click on “Notifications.”

If your concern is the push notifications that appear on your phone, you can’t turn off only the TikTok Live alerts. You’ll have to turn off all TikTok push notifications; do that by making sure the “Push notifications” link says “Off.” (If you do want to receive push notifications from TikTok, you can tap the link and adjust the times of day you allow them to be displayed on your phone.)

You have more control over in-app TikTok notifications.

Click on the “In-app notifications” link, and you’ll see a screen where you can choose from a long list of alerts the system can send. The TikTok Live notification controls are toward the bottom; make sure the “LIVE” toggle switch is turned off to prevent being interrupted by notices of all the Live shows that are about to begin.

Turn on (or off) any other notifications that you want (or don’t want) to receive directly in the TikTok app, and you’re done.

Enjoy your uninterrupted TikTok viewing time!