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How to Turn Off Game Center Alerts on Your iPhone and iPod Touch

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Are you annoyed by constant game alerts from Game Center? You are not alone. I tend to be appreciative of alerts because I like to remain current on what is going on, but between email alerts, calendar alerts, text messages, app alerts, and now game alerts I am suffering from an alert overload, which means that, I ignore the alerts rather than look at them. The guide below will show you how to disable the Game Center alert boxes and sounds so that you can start paying attention to alerts that matter.

Note: This will not affect alerts that are specific to a given game.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form at the end of the article.

Software/Hardware used: iPhone 4 running iOS 4.1 with Game Center.

IMG 1437 thumb How to Turn Off Game Center Alerts on Your iPhone and iPod Touch

1. Tap on Settings in the Home Screen.

2. When the Settings page opens tap on Notifications.

IMG 1438 thumb How to Turn Off Game Center Alerts on Your iPhone and iPod Touch

3. You will be presented with a list of Apps that have notifications. Locate and tap Game Center.

4. Tap on each of the notification types to toggle them ON or OFF.

Available Notifications

  • Sounds: Similar to an SMS sound alert. I usually disable it to keep myself from confusing App alerts with SMS messages.
  • Alerts: These are the alert boxes that appear from time to time, they can be rather annoying.
  • Badges: Badges will appear as a small icon on the App, in this case Game Center, indicating that there are alerts pending your review.

If you plan on turning off the Sounds and Alerts notifications I recommend you leave on badges so that at least you have a visual notification.

Originally posted Sep 29, 2010

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  • Tallebrandi3

    I did that. What i want tho is for my phone, when i enter a game like demolish, to stop asking me to sign into gamecenter. Your fix only works if u are a member of gamecenter, but u just dont want the alerts. I want it to stop bugging me alltogether.

    • http://www.gilsmethod.com Gilberto J Perera

      I’ve looked through the settings and cant find the option of disabling Game
      Center…some games provide you with the option of using the game’s game
      service instead of Game Center. That’s all Im aware of. You may want to
      check out Apple’s official forums or support page to see if there is an
      option.

      http://support.apple.com

  • Me

    You’re a putz, Gil. THis doesn’t work at all, did you even Q/A it???

    Faulty info is the worst part of the Interwebs.

    • http://www.gilsmethod.com Gilberto J Perera

      Googlyhead clarified it, but if you need clarification. This guide refers to the SMS alerts you get with games on Game Center when you are not playing. The other alerts have to be changed via the Games themselves.

  • Anonymous

    I think people in the discussion here are confusing push alerts (which is what the topic is actually about) with the sign-in and in-game achievements for GC enabled games.

    Flipping the toggles will only modify the SMS-style alerts (‘new update!”) you tend to see when you’re not playing.
    The achievements will appear if you’re signed in and playing. It’s part of the game’s design.
    The sign-in screen will appear if it’s a GC enabled game. To avoid this, the game itself would need to have the switchable option “use game centre” – ask the dev!

    • http://www.gilsmethod.com Gilberto J Perera

      Thanks for helping me clarify what this is about. You are right, there’s confusion on the topic.

  • Sunra

    No, it doesn’t work, what a mess, every time I try to play a game Game Center interiors and I lose control. What a disaster this thing is :-(

    • Sunra

      That should be “interferes” – damn that spell checker!

    • http://www.gilsmethod.com Gilberto J Perera

      Googlyhead clarified it, but if you need clarification. This guide refers to the SMS alerts you get with games on Game Center when you are not playing. The other alerts have to be changed via the Games themselves.

  • Paul

    Does not work!

  • Eric

    Doesn’t work. Everytime I launch iMobster or World at War, I get the sign in window for GameCenter. When I went to do your steps, turns out GameCenter notifications are already all off. Running on iP4 with 4.1. Any reason why this is still happening?

    Thanks.

    • http://www.gilsmethod.com Gilberto J Perera

      Googlyhead clarified it, but if you need clarification. This guide refers to the SMS alerts you get with games on Game Center when you are not playing. The other alerts have to be changed via the Games themselves.

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