You're watching a video or in the middle of a game and a notification slides in over the top, blocking what you're doing. Those are heads-up (or "peeking") notifications. You can kill the interruptions without muting the app completely — so you still get the alert, just quietly in the shade.
What these pop-ups are
Heads-up notifications are the floating banners Android shows for high-priority alerts (calls, alarms, sometimes chat pings). They're useful in theory but noisy in practice when every app claims "urgent". The fix is to lower an app's priority so it stops peeking.
Stop one app's pop-ups
- When the pop-up appears, long-press it → tap the gear icon → the channel.
- Set Importance to Low (shows in shade, no sound) or Min (shows silently), or turn off Pop on screen.
- The notification still arrives — it just stops floating over your screen.
What "pop-up notifications" means
Pop-up (or heads-up) notifications are the floating banners that appear over whatever you are doing when an alert arrives. They show briefly, then either auto-dismiss or stay until you act. There are two related but separate behaviors to control:
- Heads-up banners. Slide in from the top, hover for a few seconds, then settle into the shade.
- Full-screen intents. Used for incoming calls and alarms — take over the entire screen until you act.
This guide covers heads-up banners; full-screen intents are usually tied to specific app categories (dialer, alarm) and not easily silenced.
Per-app control
For most precise control, set each app's notification category:
- Settings → Notifications → App notifications → [app] → [category].
- Set importance to Low (no pop-up) or Urgent (always pop-up).
- The "Make sound and pop up on screen" toggle is the specific switch for heads-up behavior.
The global heads-up toggle
Some Android versions include a master switch:
- Stock Android / Pixel. Settings → Notifications → Pop on screen. Toggle off to disable all heads-up banners.
- Samsung One UI. Settings → Notifications → Brief pop-up settings. Choose "Brief" (no pop-up) or "Detailed" (full pop-up).
- Xiaomi HyperOS. Settings → Notifications → Floating notifications. Toggle off to hide all pop-ups.
DND and pop-ups
Do Not Disturb silences notifications but does not always suppress pop-ups. If you want pop-ups silenced without losing the alert in the shade, use the per-app importance setting. If you want alerts fully suppressed (no sound, no pop-up, no shade entry), DND is the right tool. See Do Not Disturb and Focus Mode.
Chat heads and floating chat windows
Some apps (Messenger, Telegram) use persistent floating chat heads that are separate from heads-up notifications. These are controlled by a different setting:
- Messenger. Settings → Bubbles → toggle off.
- Telegram. Settings → Notifications and Sounds → Chat Notifications → Floating Notifications.
For related patterns, see what is a floating notification, how to turn off floating notifications, and Android notification bubbles.
Silence all pop-ups
- Do Not Disturb / Focus mode suppresses heads-up pop-ups for everything, with optional exceptions (e.g. allow calls from starred contacts).
- Per-app lowering (above) is the more surgical option if you only want to quiet a few noisy apps.
Why some still pop
- Ongoing notifications (navigation, foreground calls, screen recording) always pop by design.
- Apps with multiple channels — you may have lowered "Messages" but not "Calls" or "Alerts". Check each one.
- A freshly installed update can reset a channel's importance; re-check after big app updates.