Apple’s red notification dot on the watch face is kinda handy—won’t lie—especially if you’re into catching alerts at a glance. But let’s be honest, for some, it’s more like an eyesore or just plain annoying if you’re not big on notifications popping up all the time. Sometimes the dot feels like a nagging reminder that you’re probably ignoring, and after a while, it just looks out of place. Some users want to hide or disable it altogether, either because it clutters the look or they just find it distracting. Luckily, there’s a way to do this, either straight from your iPhone or directly on the Apple Watch itself. Doing this can really clean up your watch face, making it less busy if that’s what you want. Now, the tricky part: depending on your setup, one method might work better than the other, or sometimes it feels like a bit of a gamble. But don’t worry, these steps are simple enough to follow, and you’ll hopefully get rid of that pesky red dot without messing up other notifications.
How to hide or disable the red notification dot on your Apple Watch
Method 1: Use your iPhone to turn off notifications indicator
This makes sense because if you don’t want the red dot to appear, turning off notification alerts on the watch can do the trick. It’s kind of weird, but sometimes toggling settings from the iPhone app feels more reliable. When you disable the notification indicator, the red dot should no longer show up. Expect a cleaner, less cluttered face—but of course, that means you won’t see notification badges directly on the watch anymore.
- Open your Watch app on your iPhone. Usually found on the home screen or in the app drawer.
- Tap on Notifications. It’s somewhere in the list of settings.
- Find the toggle labeled Notification Indicator. Turn it off by sliding to the left or tapping it once. When it’s gray, it’s disabled. If it’s green, it’s enabled.
It’s pretty straightforward. On some setups, you might need to restart the watch or re-sync the watch app, but usually toggling this off should do the trick pretty quickly. If it doesn’t, just double-check that you’ve saved the settings, or try toggling it back on and off again. Sometimes, the red dot stubbornly hangs around because of a sync glitch, and reapplying the setting helps.
Method 2: Use your Apple Watch to disable the notification dot directly
When the first way fails or feels too roundabout, tackle it from the watch itself. This way is more about navigating your device and toggling the notification preview settings—because, honestly, Apple doesn’t make it super obvious how to hide that dot. The reason this can help is that by turning off notification badges on the watch, the red dot should disappear. It’s usually in the Notification settings, but sometimes you need to dig a bit.
- Wake your Apple Watch by tapping the screen or pressing the Digital Crown.
- Press the Digital Crown to go to the app menu, then select the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap on Notifications.
- Find the option called Notification Indicator and toggle it off. This disables the red dot indicator from appearing on the watch face.
This method is pretty reliable, but sometimes the red dot refuses to go away temporarily, especially if notifications are still pending or if there’s a sync issue. In that case, a quick restart of your watch or re-pairing it with your phone might help. Also, note that turning off the indicator just hides that tiny red dot—it doesn’t block notifications themselves, so your alerts still come through, just more quietly.
And, yeah, it’s kind of annoying how Apple doesn’t have a straightforward “hide the red dot” toggle in quick settings. Of course, the watch wants to keep you notified, but if minimalism’s your thing, these little tricks do help.
Hope this helps clear up the mystery of the red notification dot. Sometimes it’s just about toggling a few settings—you do what you gotta do to keep your watch face clean and distraction-free.