What this guide is really about
Threads may notify you when someone likes or replies to one of your threads, mentions you, reposts or quotes your content, follows you or accepts your follow request, or sends you a direct message. The controls for those alerts do not live in one place. Pause all and the per-type switches sit in the Threads app under Profile, Menu, Notifications. A per-person control sits on the profile of someone you follow. A per-thread control sits on a post. Conversation mute is separate, and it is not available on computers.
The official help pages publish the steps for the Threads app on Android and iPhone. What they do not document is a single switch that turns every notification off forever. Pause all is a temporary stop for push notifications with a duration you pick. A lasting change means setting a notification type to Off yourself.
This guide maps every documented control, labels the few details that come from older third-party walkthroughs instead of the help pages, and ends with a short audit so you keep only the alerts you act on.
Open the Threads app and tap your profile picture in the bottom right, then the menu icon in the top right, then Notifications. To pause push notifications, turn on Pause all and select a duration. To stop one type of alert, open a category such as Threads and replies, pick the type, and set it to Off.
Pause all and per-type settings sit behind Profile, Menu, then Notifications. The per-person, per-thread, and conversation mute controls do not.
Pause all temporarily stops push notifications for a duration you select. The help page does not promise anything beyond that.
Per-type Off is the lasting fix, and not every type offers From people you follow as a middle state.
Per-person and per-thread changes are private, but there is no bulk editor: one profile at a time.
Conversation mute is mobile only, and phone-level silence comes from your OS, not the Threads help pages.
The Notification Controls on Threads, Mapped
The help pages document five notification controls, and each one does a different job. Reaching for the wrong control is the main reason people tap through settings for an hour and still end up buzzed. Here is the map before you touch anything. - Pause all: temporarily stops push notifications for a duration you select - Per-type settings: set a type to Off, From people you follow, or From everyone, where that state is offered - Per-person Notifications: turn post alerts on or off for someone you follow, one profile at a time - Per-thread control: turns on reply alerts for one post for 24 hours in your Activity feed. It adds alerts rather than removing them - Conversation mute: quiets notifications for one conversation, on mobile only
Now match the control to the job. Need quiet for the next hour or the rest of the evening? Pause all. Tired of one kind of alert for good? Per-type Off. One account flooding your phone? The Notifications control on their profile. Waiting on replies to a question you asked? The per-thread control, which runs for 24 hours and then stops. A busy chat that will not settle? Conversation mute.
Your phone's operating system adds one more layer, silence instead of off. Those are phone settings rather than Threads settings, and the official Threads help pages do not document them, so this guide covers them separately with their source labeled.
How to Pause All Push Notifications
Pause all is how the app temporarily stops receiving push notifications. On Android and iPhone the taps are identical. Open the Threads app and tap your profile picture in the bottom right. Tap Menu in the top right, then Notifications. Tap the switch next to Pause all and select how long you want notifications paused. The official pause push notifications page documents exactly this path.
How long can you pause for? The help page tells you to select a duration but does not publish the list. A July 2023 MacRumors walkthrough documented the launch-era options as 15 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, and 8 hours. Treat that as a snapshot from 2023, not a promise about today's menu.
One boundary worth knowing: the page scopes Pause all to push notifications. It does not say the pause wipes anything, and it does not say it changes your per-type settings. It documents a temporary stop that lasts for the duration you selected.
That is the real split between the two headline controls. Pause all is a temporary state that ends when its duration runs out, which makes it right for dinner, deadlines, and sleep. Setting a notification type to Off inside its category is the lasting fix, and it stays put until you pick a different state.
Turn Off Notifications by Type: the Lasting Fix
Per-type settings are where lasting quiet happens, and the entrance is the same three taps: your profile picture in the bottom right, the menu icon in the top right, then Notifications. The page that documents how to manage push notifications on Threads lists two example categories, Threads and replies and Following and followers. Inside a category, scroll to the specific notification type and pick its state.
The documented states are Off, From people you follow, and From everyone. The help page notes that not every type offers the middle option, so some rows come down to a straight choice between Off and From everyone. Where it is offered, From people you follow is the underrated middle ground: you keep hearing from accounts you deliberately chose, and everyone else goes quiet. Every choice here is reversible.
A few row names float around from older guides: New followers, Account suggestions, and Pre-followed user joined Threads under Following and followers. Those labels come from the same 2023 MacRumors walkthrough, not from the current help page, so if a row is not in your app, do not hunt for the old name. The help page also says Threads may notify you when someone mentions you, reposts or quotes your content, or sends you a direct message, so walk every category and set anything you do not act on to Off.
One boundary worth respecting: these switches manage alerts, not people. If the problem is a specific account's behavior in your feed rather than a category of ping, that is a job where you mute or hide instead of digging through notification menus.
Expecting Pause all to clear activity inside the app. Fix: The pause page only documents a temporary stop of push notifications. Anything the app logs internally is outside what it promises.
Hunting for 2023 row names like Account suggestions. Fix: Those labels come from a 2023 walkthrough, not the current help page. Set whatever rows your app actually shows to Off.
Using the per-thread bell to get fewer alerts. Fix: It works in reverse: it turns on 24 hours of reply alerts in Activity. Tap it again to end them.
Treating phone silence settings as Threads settings. Fix: Android Silent and iPhone Sounds off are phone-OS steps. To stop Threads push, use Pause all or per-type Off in the app.
Muting one conversation and expecting quieter messages overall. Fix: Conversation mute covers a single chat, on mobile only. Message-wide quiet needs the message controls.
Per-Person and Per-Thread Notification Controls
Sometimes the noise is not a category of alert, it is one account. The help page for turning notifications on or off for someone you follow gives two ways in. Through your profile: tap your profile picture in the bottom right, tap Followers below your profile info, tap Following at the top, find the person, open their profile, then tap Notifications in the top right. Through search: type their name, jump to their profile, and tap the same control. The result is identical either way.
Two details make this the politest control in the app. People are not notified when you change their setting, so the quiet stays invisible to them. And there is no bulk editor: the page says you visit each profile and change the setting individually, which stays manageable for the two or three accounts that actually flood your phone. If you share your posts to the fediverse, the same Notifications control appears on the profiles of people you follow from other servers.
The other control sits on posts rather than profiles, and it works in reverse: it turns notifications on. Tap the notifications icon in the top right of a post and you receive notifications in Activity about replies to that thread for 24 hours. The author is not told, and you can end it anytime by tapping the active icon again. It is the right tool when you have asked a question and want the answers without following anyone new.
Neither control tips anyone off, which makes them safe to use freely. If you are keeping a low profile in general, Threads online status control is a separate setting that governs the green dot showing you are around. And if quiet lurking makes you wonder about captures, screenshot notifications on Threads get their own honest walkthrough.
Phone Silence Options and Conversation Mute
Your phone can quiet Threads in ways the app's own menu cannot, because system settings sit outside the app. Be clear about the sourcing here: these are phone-OS steps, documented in a 2023 TechWiser guide rather than the official Threads help pages, and menu names shift between phone versions. On Android, long-press the Threads app icon, tap the info button, then Notifications, and set the app to Silent. On iPhone, open Settings, tap Threads, then Notifications, and toggle Sounds off. Silence keeps alerts coming but mutes how they arrive. If you want alerts to stop entirely, the documented levers are inside the app: Pause all for a temporary stop, per-type Off for a lasting one.
Conversation mute is the narrowest control. Threads offers a dedicated way to mute conversation notifications, which is what you want when one busy chat refuses to settle down. Two catches: the feature is not available on computers, and the exact taps live on the official help page for your device, so follow it rather than a paraphrase.
If messages are the main source of noise, one conversation mute only goes so far. You can turn off Threads messages more broadly, and knowing who can still reach you afterward is worth a minute before you commit.
Quiet the Noise, Keep the Signal
A notification earns its place when you act on it. Make it a test instead of a feeling: open the Notifications menu, walk each category, and for every type ask one question. Has this alert ever led you to open Threads and do something? If the answer is no, it goes to Off. That is a reader test, not a rule from the help pages, and it is the fastest way to cut the noise.
Keep reply and mention alerts if you manage conversations, and lean on From people you follow where it is offered, since that state filters the crowd without silencing your circle. Treat Pause all as a scheduled break rather than a lifestyle, because it expires. Save the per-thread control for posts where you truly need the answers, and tap it off when you have them.
Then swap monitoring for measuring. A stream of pings is a poor dashboard for what is actually working, and it keeps you reactive all day. A Threads engagement rate calculator works out your engagement rate from the post numbers you enter, which tells you which content earns attention with none of the buzzing. Fewer alerts, better decisions, same information.
Action checklist
Use this as the practical next pass after reading the guide.
- +Open Threads, tap Profile in the bottom right, Menu in the top right, then Notifications
- +Toggle Pause all on and pick a duration whenever you need a short break
- +Walk each category and set every type you ignore to Off
- +Choose From people you follow where it is offered and you want a middle ground
- +Visit the profiles of loud posters and turn their Notifications control off; they will not know
- +Rerun the audit monthly: off what you ignore, keep what you act on
Conclusion
That is the whole documented set: five in-app controls plus your phone's silence layer. Pause all buys you a quiet evening and expires on its own. Per-type Off is the lasting fix, and From people you follow handles the middle ground. The per-person and per-thread controls work without telling anyone, and conversation mute deals with busy chats on mobile.
Start with the five-minute audit. Profile in the bottom right, Menu in the top right, Notifications, then walk the categories and switch off anything you do not act on. Your phone keeps buzzing only for what matters, and Threads goes back to being an app you open on purpose.
