iOS: Disable Shortcuts automation notifications

By default if an automation from Shortcuts has been running on your iOS device, you get a banner notification. Since you usually know what you’ve configured in your Shortcuts automations, these notifications seem to be redundant. Luckily, you can get rid of it.

Update iOS 15.4: Apple has now added the possibility to disable notifications for automations on a per-automation base. To disable it, open the automation in the Shortcuts app and deselect the last entry “Notify When Run“.

iOS 15.4: Disable notification when run

Notice: You cannot disable notifications for regular shortcuts. Only notifications from automations can be disabled this way.

You might think it’s as easy as it should be, just go into the notification settings and disable banner notifications of the Shortcuts app. Unfortunately, the Shortcuts app is not listed in the notification settings. You need to change these settings elsewhere.

To do so you have to use the Screen Time settings, go to the Settings app and select Screen Time. Below your Daily Average, open to the See All Activity entry.

Screen Time: See All Activity
Open the “See All Activity” (highlighted with red border)

Now scroll down to the “Notifications” area and click on “Show More” until you see the entry “Shortcuts”. You need to have at least a single notification in your selected time from the Shortcuts automations. If there isn’t any, check another time range until you can find it.

Shortcuts in Screen Time All Activity
Shortcuts entry in Screen Time (highlighted with red border)

You need to open this Shortcuts entry. If you can’t, wait a little while until everything has been loaded and there is an arrow on the right side of the entry. It may take some time, depending on your device usage.

After clicking on it, you can find the regular notification settings that you had been looking for in the general notification settings. Here, you can disable all notifications of the Shortcuts app.

Shortcuts disabled notifications

Unfortunately, this setting is temporarily. As soon as you restart the iPhone or the UI, you need to set your desired setting again in order to keep it working.

89 thoughts on “iOS: Disable Shortcuts automation notifications

  1. thank you! Also I noticed that I can no longer have prompts come up to continue shortcuts? I have an automation when I plug in my charger that asks if I want to enable fast charging, yes then enable, or no then disable, but without notifications, I cannot select yes or no. any other work-around?

      1. So I just disabled the notifications through ScreenTime but I’m still getting them non stop, any ideas? iOS16.1.1

        1. If you disabled them before, just change the date of your screen time to a date where you had notifications. Then you can re-enable them again where you disabled then. If you didn’t disable them, they are enabled by default.

          1. What happens if you never had notifications for shortcuts and want to enable them? When i go to screen time, theres no shortcuts in notifications. I receive the notification on my lock screen but the apps no longer show that i have a notification…

          2. You don’t need to enable them manually since they are enabled by default. If you want to make sure they’re enabled, just reboot your device. That resets the default to enabled notifications.

          3. I think I’m having a similar issue to this – I’ve set up my shortcuts and I keep getting the banner notification every time I open an app via shortcut. I’ve followed the instructions to go to settings > screen time > see all activity and scroll to the bottom, but nothing from shortcuts app is there. I’ve tried to trick of toggling back and forth between week and day then checking.. still not there. I’ve tried waiting.. still not there. I used the shortcuts app for a solid hour on Monday (today is wednesday) so enough time should have passed that when I click back to Monday’s date, shortcuts appears as an app I’ve spent “screen time” on.. but it’s still not there. Trying desperately to turn off these banner notifications! Argh!

            I’m almost thinking I need to find a way to make sure “notifications” for shortcuts app screen time are turned on before I’m able to turn them off.. but I can’t find any articles or instructions of where to find such a setting..

          4. There was a recent IOS update and the allow notifications toggle has gone.
            I only have two automations (phone says thank you when I plug and unplug charger). I used your instructions previously and it worked. Sadly without this notification toggle I can’t reinstate turning the notification banners off again.

    1. So, the way to fix this is tricky, u would have to update ur device, however, then u would receive a notification whenever u open an app, i personally would rather have the shortcuts app open and the my app run. However that is just my opinion.

  2. My notifications are not popping up for my other apps because I’m using Shortcuts and Shortcuts not showing up in my notifications on screen time so I don’t know what to do and how to get all my notifications back

  3. Hi, I’ve made new shortcuts for my apps like Instagram, Snapchat, etc. But when I receive a notifications from à these apps, there’s no little red one like before to tell me that I have a notifications, how can I put them back on my new shortcuts apps ?
    Thank you

  4. How do you get shortcuts to pop up in the notifications tab under screen time notifications ? I can see shortcuts in most used part but not notifications.

      1. How can this be achieved? I get the notifications from it when I open customised apps, but when I go to screen time, notifications, it’s not there to turn off, even though it pops up when I open my apps? So I can’t get rid of it if it doesn’t come up in the first place, any ideas??

  5. I’ve done everything in the comments and I still nave no notifications for text or missed calls. I have to constantly go in to see if I have messages. I’m using shortcuts because I’ve changed the icons on my apps. So since restarting my phone didn’t help and I don’t have it in screen time what do I do?

  6. Trying to turn not Shortcut notification under setting, screen time and see all activity and there is NO Shortcut under the notification part.

      1. So when I customized my apps on shortcuts and updated to 14.3 it started the notifications. When I go to screen time and notifications, Shortcuts is never there and I know I’ve had multiple throughout the day when I open the apps Ive customized? Can you help?

  7. Is there anyway to force a notification for the Short cuts app so I can use this work around? I’ve never had a notification from that app. Just turned screen time on.

    1. I usually get a notification if I create an automation that does something whenever I open a specific app. E. g. add a automation that changes the volume when you open the Music app. This will trigger a notification.

  8. Hi,
    When I go to screen time and then shortcuts, there is no button there for me to turn off notifications for shortcuts.
    How do I turn off the notifications so my audio file plays when I go to low power mode without a notification?

      1. Hi, what if I have already triggered many notifications, yet I do not see shortcuts in the notifications section? I have also restarted my phone and triggered more notifications.

  9. I have the same problem as Ashley above. I do not get any notifications or alerts since I chose to do a theme & use photos for apps via shortcuts. So I thought there must be somewhere in shortcuts to do this. But I failed. The notification came AFTER opening messages, mail, etc. I know exactly what Camille mentioned above. We used to have a red 1,2,3, etc on the outside of the badge so you knew to check there. No notifications at all is not good. I also wonder if maybe you are using Android & some of us on iPhone???

  10. I managed. The notifications for shortcuts were at the bottom of the page after clicking on show all activity. To get notifications in the first place I used the battery automations. Sweet. Thank you!!!!

  11. so now there is no way to turn off the notifications for shortcuts at least for me now instead of there being an arrow for the notifications it’s unclickable

    1. As I wrote in the article: you need to wait some time until it’s clickable. What also may help is that you wait a bit, change the day if Screen Time to yesterday and switch back to today. Then it should be clickable.

  12. I have turned of notifications from shortcuts to get rid of the automation notification. If i needed a written feedback from the automation, i could work around this by using a «show results» comand or «quick view» or something.
    For some reason this is no longer possible in an automation, but it still works in shortcuts.
    If i trigger a shortcut by an automation, i get nothing from «show results». Bit if i trigger the same shortcut from a widget, it works.
    Can somebody explain this to me?
    Why does deactivating shortcut notifications affect shortcuts differently when triggered by an automation? Any work arounds?

  13. I wasted my time reading the comments on this article and I’m genuinely sorry about the majority of idiots who pester you with their problems unrelated to the article or ask a question that can easily be answered by READING THE ARTICLE. I would just like to say thank you. The shortcuts notifications bothered me so I looked up a way to disable them and this straight forward and EASY step by step helped me accomplish just that. I hope you don’t burn yourself out responding to all the people who didn’t bother to read.

  14. Ios 14.2 has killed this “hack”. It did work flawlessly prior to the update. I am now once again pestered by shortcut notifications on both iphone and watch. Really annoying. Any ideas?

  15. THANK YOU!!! Those notifications are so annoying. I didn’t create a “shortcut “ to be notified 5x/day that I need to set DND every night.

  16. Hiya! Any help would be appreciated — none of the shortcuts I’ve created seem to prompt a ‘notification’ as screentime deems them. Do you know a sure-fire shortcut that will cause a ‘notification’ on screentime?

      1. I managed get it to do a notification, but the hack didn’t work! 🙁 even with them disabled, i still get the banner notification each time i use a shortcut ><

          1. i did a little video of it here: https://youtu.be/-ijp3nliMpI — the first bit shows the banner ad, and then (it took me a second to find it again, so it’s a bit of a slow watch, i’m afraid!) how i have turned off notifications for the shortcuts via screentime.

  17. I started getting the notifications after the update. Even though several of my apps are shortcuts, when I got to the screen time and activity? It never shows me shortcuts for notification ?

  18. Great tip, buuuut…. It killed all notifications and not only the ones I wanted to get rid of. 😉 I have some shortcuts I trigger that pops up ”choose from list”, with Homekit scenarios and the likes.
    The annoying notifications is the ones I get every hour when I have an automated shortcut that writes current temperature, humidity etc to a file. So I guess I’m still stuck with 24 unnecessary notifications per day. 🙁

  19. I changed my icons so when i open any app it shows the shortcut banner and this article is for automations? Because i tried this method but the banner is still showing

  20. I followed instructions and turned them all off but i still see the notifications. Yes i restarted my phone

    1. Then, please read the last paragraph again:

      Unfortunately, this setting is temporarily. As soon as you restart the iPhone or the UI, you need to set your desired setting again in order to keep it working.

      1. I did. I turned them off and i still saw them. So i restarted to reset it and turned them off again and i still see the pop up

  21. I’ve turned off all notifications but the ONE I really wanted to get rid of is STILL there.
    Every time I open an app, a notification pops up with a ✅ on it to tell me I’ve basically successfully gotten onto the app, which is something I obviously know.
    How do I stop these notifications despite the fact that I already turned them all off??

  22. I am getting notifications from shortcuts and they are annoying but when I go to screen time it says there are no notifications but I am getting them is there any other way to disable them.

  23. Hello i keep getting banner notifications however shortcuts under notification screen time not there is missing and i have been getting bannners everytime i use shortcut to go to an app

  24. I made sure to follow the instructions carefully but they haven’t worked. Notifications are definitely off but they keep coming up.

  25. The Screen Time change in notification didn’t work for me. I tried 3 times & went by the directions. I have been a loyal Apple user for many years and these last updates have been a nuisance. I changed my icons so there are now 62 shortcuts for each one. And now the banner comes up. Oh, I almost forgot the biggest thing months ago was no longer showing the number of missed calls, texts, etc. so I have to actually launch the app to check. And I don’t think about it always so I’m delayed in getting back to ppl. I finally have a notification on everything but texts & email. Frustrated.

    1. You should read the second paragraph with the general notice. Then you wouldn’t have had to try it at all since it doesn’t work for regular shortcuts, as I pointed out there.

      You can’t blame Apple for something you changed on your device what was never the intention by Apple to do it that way.

  26. Thank you so much for the explanation!!!
    I wondered for a while now how to get rid of these automation notifications… 🙂

  27. It appears as of the most recent update, the “Notifications” button either doesn’t show, or shows intermittently from this location.

  28. Nevermind my previous comment. The guide is right, I just looked in the wrong spot. The notifications activity section is the only place where Shortcuts will let you change the notifications, even though “Shortcuts” appears elsewhere inside of the Screen Time reports.

    It makes sense from a certain perspective but.. maybe a bit over engineered. Though using Automation to change the Icons isn’t exactly in the iPhone Handbook, so it makes sense that it’s a little weirder to get to.

    Maybe the fact that people are using this trick to change their icons will suggest to Apple that it’s a feature people want, and it’ll get added some day.

    Thanks for your guide.

  29. I have done everything you said I had to do and for every app I made, but it still gives notifications and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I have disabled notifications and made automations. I made icons for my apps and every time I open one of my shortcuts that are on my homescreen, I get a notification with the app and a big check. What do I do wrong?

  30. Thank you. I had been flooded with automation notifications to wits end. I was aggrieved apple hid automations from notification manager

  31. This does fuck nothing to permanently remove the annoying notifications. They come back after a few days.

    1. Please, don’t be rude. Additionally, did you check the whole article?

      At first: with iOS 15.4, there is a builtin option that works fine.
      Second: Every (UI) restart of the device will reset the option set in Screen Time and needs to be done again.

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