When you receive a notification, a notification banner appears in the upper-right corner of the screen for a few seconds.
Note: Notification Center can display either banners or alerts. A banner appears for a few seconds and then disappears. An alert remains on-screen until you dismiss it.
If you want to see the item that produced the notification, click the banner.
To see if there are other actions you can take with the notification, move the pointer over it.
If the Options button appears, click Options.
The Options menu opens.
You can then click an action.
Display Notification Center When Your Desktop Is Visible
Click the clock readout.
Notification Center opens.
You can dismiss a notification by moving the pointer over it and then clicking Close ().
Optionally, click a notification to display the related item in its app.
When you are ready to close Notification Center, click outside it.
Note: You can also click the clock readout to close Notification Center.
Choose What Types of Notifications to Display and Set Your Do Not Disturb Hours
Press + click System Preferences () on the Dock.
Click Notifications & Focus.
In the Notifications & Focus pane, click Notifications.
Click the app or feature you want to configure.
Set the Allow Notifications switch to On () or Off (), as needed.
Choose notification options for the app or feature.
Click Focus.
Click the focus you want to configure.
Click Options and choose whether to allow time-sensitive notifications, calls from a specified contact group, or repeated calls.
In the Allowed Notifications From box, specify any people allowed to contact you.
In the Turn On Automatically box, specify any automation schedule needed for the focus.
Select () or deselect () Share Focus Status to control sharing of your focus status.
Select () or deselect () Share across devices to control whether macOS shares the focus with your other devices.
Click Close ().
System Preferences closes.
Tip
What are the Allow Notifications settings at the bottom of the Notifications & Focus pane?
The three Allow Notifications settings apply to notifications from all apps and features. Select () or deselect () When the display is sleeping, When the screen is locked, and When mirroring or sharing the display to control when your MacBook displays notifications. You can also click Show previews () and then click always, when unlocked, or never, as needed.
