To get your AirPods to stop reading notifications, you need to turn off Siri’s Announce Notifications feature on your iPhone or iPad.

How to Get AirPods to Stop Reading Notifications

Quick Scoop

Here’s the fast version of how to stop your AirPods from reading notifications through Siri:

  1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
  1. Tap Notifications.
  1. Tap Announce Notifications under the Siri section.
  1. Turn Announce Notifications off (toggle so it’s gray, not green).

Once you do this, Siri will stop reading messages and other app notifications in your AirPods.

Step‑by‑Step: Turn It Off in Settings

This is the main, permanent way to silence notification reading.

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  1. Scroll down and tap Notifications.
  1. In the Siri section, tap Announce Notifications.
  1. Toggle Announce Notifications to off.

After this, Siri will no longer read your notifications through AirPods (or CarPlay) at all.

If it’s just text messages that annoy you, some guides also show you can go into the Announce Notifications From section and turn off Messages only, but the simplest way is to switch the whole thing off.

Fast Toggle from Control Center

If you sometimes like notifications read out (for workouts, driving, etc.) but not all the time, using Control Center is more flexible.

Typical flow:

  1. Make sure your AirPods are connected to your iPhone.
  1. Swipe down from the upper‑right corner of the screen to open Control Center (Face ID phones) or swipe up from the bottom on older models.
  1. Look for the Announce Notifications bell icon.
  1. Tap the bell to turn announcements off (it should look inactive/gray).

Some guides also note you can press and hold that bell icon to pause announcements for just an hour or for the rest of the day, which is handy if you only need quiet temporarily.

If you don’t see the Announce Notifications control, you may need to add it:

  1. Go to Settings → Control Center.
  1. Tap Add a Control (or the “+” button on older versions).
  1. Search for Announce Notifications and add it.

Now you have a quick on/off switch without diving back into Settings every time.

Extra Tips and Common Questions

“I turned it off but it still talks sometimes”

A few possibilities:

  • Focus / Do Not Disturb : Using Focus modes can silence notifications overall, but if Announce Notifications is still on, it may behave differently depending on which apps or contacts are allowed.
  • Apple Watch : If you use an Apple Watch with AirPods, watch‑side Announce settings can also read messages unless disabled there too.

On iPhone, the definitive kill‑switch is the main Announce Notifications toggle in Settings → Notifications.

“Can I keep it for some apps only?”

Yes—if you don’t want a total stop, you can keep the feature on but control which apps can speak:

  1. Go to Settings → Notifications → Announce Notifications.
  1. Scroll down to the list of apps under Announce Notifications From.
  1. Turn off announce for the noisy apps (like group chats or social media) and leave it on for essentials like Messages or Reminders.

This gives you a more selective quiet mode instead of an all‑or‑nothing approach.

Mini Story: When This Matters

Plenty of users mention that the feature is great when working out or driving but awful in quiet offices or late at night—especially when group chats are blowing up. One typical pattern people end up using is:

  • Keep Announce Notifications off by default.
  • Quickly enable it from Control Center when they expect an important message but don’t want to stare at the phone.

That way, AirPods go back to being just headphones, not a running commentary on every ping.

Simple HTML Table of Key Options

Because you asked for structured info, here’s a quick HTML table summarizing the main ways to stop AirPods from reading notifications:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Method</th>
      <th>Where to Go</th>
      <th>What to Do</th>
      <th>Effect</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Turn off in Settings</td>
      <td>Settings → Notifications → Announce Notifications[web:1][web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
      <td>Toggle "Announce Notifications" off[web:1][web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
      <td>Stops Siri from reading any notifications on AirPods and CarPlay[web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Use Control Center toggle</td>
      <td>Control Center → Announce Notifications bell icon[web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
      <td>Tap bell to disable; press and hold to pause for 1 hour or a day[web:7][web:9]</td>
      <td>Quick on/off or temporary pause without changing main settings[web:4][web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Per‑app control</td>
      <td>Settings → Notifications → Announce Notifications → App list[web:2][web:5][web:9]</td>
      <td>Disable announce for specific apps only[web:4][web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
      <td>Keeps important apps speaking while silencing noisy ones[web:4][web:5][web:7][web:9]</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

TL;DR: Turn off Settings → Notifications → Announce Notifications , or use the Announce Notifications bell in Control Center to quickly shut your AirPods up when you just want to listen in peace.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.