To turn off every notification from the ESPN Fantasy app on an iPhone, open Settings, tap Notifications, tap the ESPN Fantasy app, and turn off Allow Notifications. If you only want fewer alerts, open the ESPN Fantasy app, tap the gear icon, and use Alert Preferences to switch off the specific Game Alerts, News Alerts, league alerts, or chat alerts you do not want. To keep the alerts but stop the noise, go to the same ESPN Fantasy screen in Settings > Notifications and turn off Sounds instead.
The in-app steps below follow ESPN Fan Support’s articles on the ESPN Fantasy App and alerts, adjusting Fantasy alert preferences, and Fantasy League Chat alerts. The phone steps follow Apple’s guide to changing notification settings on iPhone and Google’s guide to controlling notifications on Android.
Which Method Should You Use?
There are two separate sets of controls, and they do different jobs. The ESPN Fantasy app decides which alerts ESPN sends. Your phone decides whether the app is allowed to show any notification at all.
- You want fewer alerts but still want the important ones: use Alert Preferences inside the ESPN Fantasy app.
- You want league chat to stop buzzing: turn off Chat Notifications or mute one conversation.
- You want the alerts but not the sound: turn off Sounds for ESPN Fantasy in your iPhone settings.
- You want the app to be completely silent: turn off the app’s notifications in your iPhone or Android settings.
- You want a short break: mute the app for an hour or a day from an iPhone notification.
What you need: the ESPN Fantasy app installed and signed in to your ESPN account. ESPN offers the app for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Menu names on Android can differ slightly between phone makers. Phone notification settings apply to that one device only, so an iPad or another phone keeps its own settings.
How to Turn Off Specific Alerts in the ESPN Fantasy App
This is the best option during the season, because you can keep useful alerts, such as trade offers, and drop the rest.
- Open the ESPN Fantasy app.
- Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen. This opens the app’s settings menu.
- Tap Alert Preferences.
- Turn Game Alerts and News Alerts on or off for each Fantasy sport. ESPN lists Football, Baseball, Hockey, and Men’s and Women’s Basketball.
- Scroll down to the list of your leagues and tap a league. A second alert menu opens for that league only.
- Turn off the categories you do not want. ESPN gives Trades and Add/Drops as examples of the categories you will see.
- Go back and repeat steps 5 and 6 for every other league you are in.
ESPN explains the two main types this way: Game Alerts are about the results of your Fantasy teams and players, and News Alerts cover real-world news and results from the professional leagues. If the constant player news is what bothers you, News Alerts is the switch to try first.
Two details from ESPN are worth knowing before you start. First, when Fantasy alerts are turned on, every option under them starts out turned on, so you have to switch off the ones you do not want one by one. Second, changes to one league do not affect any other league. Each league has to be set individually.
Turn Off Fantasy Chat Alerts
League chat has its own switch. In the ESPN Fantasy app, go to Settings > Alert Preferences > Chat Notifications and turn the toggle off. ESPN notes that this turns off all chat notifications, not just one league’s.
To quiet a single conversation instead, open that chat, tap the chat name at the top of the screen, and turn on Mute Notifications. Only that conversation is muted. Turn the same toggle off to hear from it again. ESPN says League Chat is for LM leagues (leagues run by a league manager), so you may not see these options in other league types.
How to Turn Off ESPN Fantasy Notification Sounds on iPhone
If the alerts themselves are fine and only the noise bothers you, turn off the app’s sound. The alerts still arrive, but your iPhone stays quiet when they do. These steps cover iPhones running iOS 27, and they match recent earlier versions too, because the Settings > Notifications path has not changed.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Notifications.
- Scroll to the list of apps below Notification Style and tap ESPN Fantasy. Apple also documents a second route: Settings > Apps > ESPN Fantasy > Notifications.
- Make sure Allow Notifications is on. The other options on this screen only appear when it is.
- Turn off Sounds.
There is no Save button, so you can close Settings as soon as the switch is off. ESPN Fantasy alerts keep appearing on your Lock Screen, in Notification Center, or as banners, depending on what is selected under Alerts, but they no longer play a sound. To undo it, return to the same screen and turn Sounds back on.
Apple describes Sounds as an option that appears only if the app supports it. If your iPhone shows Sounds as a row to tap rather than a switch, tap it and look for a silent choice there. The same setting exists for most apps, as shown in the steps for turning off sound notifications in the iPhone Twitch app. Prefer to keep a sound but pick a different one? You can change an iPhone app’s notification sound instead.
The ESPN Fantasy notification screen has two switches that are easy to confuse. Sounds only controls the noise. Allow Notifications controls whether the app can alert you at all. Turn off Allow Notifications only if you are happy to miss trade offers and lineup reminders unless you open the app yourself.
Silence ESPN Fantasy Alerts Overnight
To keep ESPN Fantasy sounds during the day but not at night, use a Focus. A Focus is an iPhone mode, such as Do Not Disturb or Sleep, that holds back notifications while it is on. Per Apple’s Focus guide:
- Open Control Center.
- Tap Focus.
- Tap Do Not Disturb to turn it on.
To make it automatic, go to Settings > Focus, tap a Focus such as Do Not Disturb, and tap Add Schedule to set the times. In the same place, tap Apps to choose which apps are allowed or silenced while that Focus is on. Keep in mind that a Focus affects more than ESPN Fantasy: it silences other notifications too, unless you allow them. The steps for turning on Do Not Disturb on an iPhone cover the options in more detail.
To turn a Focus off, open Control Center, tap Focus, and tap the Focus that is on.
If Your Apple Watch Still Taps or Chimes
An Apple Watch can pass along iPhone alerts, so a quiet iPhone does not always mean a quiet wrist. According to Apple’s Apple Watch notifications article:
- On your iPhone, open the Watch app and tap the My Watch tab.
- Tap Notifications.
- Scroll to Mirror iPhone Alerts From and turn off the switch next to ESPN Fantasy to stop its alerts on the watch.
If ESPN Fantasy appears higher in the list with its own options instead, tap it. Mirror my iPhone copies your iPhone settings, while Custom lets you pick Send to Notification Center for alerts that arrive without a sound or tap on the watch.
How to Turn Off All ESPN Fantasy Notifications on iPhone
Use this method when you want nothing from the app: no banners, no sounds, and no badge. A badge is the red number that appears on an app icon. This does not change anything in your league, and you can still open the app to check scores whenever you like.
If only the red number bothers you, the Badges switch hides it, as shown in how to turn off the Dunkin’ app badge.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Notifications.
- Scroll to the list of apps below Notification Style and tap the ESPN Fantasy app.
- Turn off Allow Notifications.
To undo this, return to the same screen and turn Allow Notifications back on.
Turn It Off From a Notification
If an ESPN Fantasy alert is already on your Lock Screen or in Notification Center, Apple offers a shortcut. Swipe left on the notification, tap Options, then tap Turn Off. The same menu lets you mute the app with Mute for 1 Hour or Mute for Today, which sends its notifications straight to Notification Center without a sound or banner, and View Settings jumps to the ESPN Fantasy notification screen. Apple’s notifications article describes these options. If you are not sure how to open that list, see where Notification Center is on iPhone.
Keep Alerts but Make Them Less Disruptive
You do not have to choose between everything and nothing. On the ESPN Fantasy screen in Settings > Notifications, Apple lets you adjust how alerts arrive:
- Under Alerts, choose whether notifications appear on the Lock Screen, in Notification Center, or as banners.
- Tap Sounds, if the app supports it, to change or remove the alert sound. The sounds section above covers this in more detail.
- Turn off Badges to remove the red number from the app icon. See what badges are on iPhone for more on that setting.
- If you use Scheduled Summary, choose Scheduled Summary under Notification Delivery so the alerts arrive in a batch at times you pick.
- If Show Previews appears, choose Always, When Unlocked, or Never.
How to Turn Off All ESPN Fantasy Notifications on Android
Google’s steps for Android are similar, but it warns that settings can vary by phone. On a Samsung or other non-Pixel phone, the menu names may be worded a little differently.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Notifications, then tap App notifications.
- Look for ESPN Fantasy under Most recent. If it is not there, open the dropdown menu and tap All apps.
- Tap the ESPN Fantasy app.
- Turn the app’s notifications off. You can turn off all notifications for an app or choose from specific categories, if the app offers them.
There is also a shortcut. Swipe down from the top of the screen, touch and hold an ESPN Fantasy notification, and tap Settings. From there you can turn off All notifications for the app. To undo either method, go back to the same screen and turn the switch on again.
How to Stop ESPN Emails
Turning off app notifications does not unsubscribe you from email. ESPN manages newsletter email in your account, not in the app’s Alert Preferences. According to ESPN, you log in to ESPN.com, click the account icon in the top-right corner, and click Newsletters. After you log in again for security, uncheck the newsletters you do not want and click Save. ESPN’s article on managing email subscriptions has the full steps.
Troubleshooting
You Still Get Alerts After Turning Some Off
The most common cause is a league you have not adjusted yet. Alert settings are stored per sport and per league, so open Alert Preferences, scroll down, and check every league in the list. Check Chat Notifications as well, because chat is a separate toggle.
The Alerts Come From the Main ESPN App
ESPN and ESPN Fantasy are two different apps with separate alert settings. Score and breaking news alerts for your favorite teams usually come from the main ESPN app. ESPN says to tap the gear icon in that app to reach its alert settings, where you can turn alerts on or off. Look at the app name on the notification to see which app sent it.
You Cannot Find the ESPN Fantasy App in Settings
On iPhone, scroll through the full list of apps below Notification Style, and make sure you are looking for ESPN Fantasy rather than ESPN. If the app was installed recently and is still missing, open it once and then check the list again. If Notifications does not appear for an app, the app might not be able to send notifications. On Android, switch the dropdown to All apps, since the default view only shows apps that sent notifications recently.
Alerts Stay Off After You Turn Them Back On
Both layers have to be on. If your phone blocks the app, the in-app toggles cannot deliver anything, and ESPN notes that alerts require permission in your device’s settings. Turn on Allow Notifications on iPhone, or the app’s notification switch on Android, then check Alert Preferences in the app. On iPhone, a Focus such as Do Not Disturb can also hold notifications back. The steps for fixing silenced notifications on iPhone explain how to check for that.
You Still Hear a Sound or Feel a Buzz
If you turned off Sounds for ESPN Fantasy and still hear a sound, it may be coming from the main ESPN app, which has a separate entry under Settings > Notifications. Repeat the steps for ESPN. If the iPhone still buzzes, remember that sounds and vibration are not the same thing, and an iPhone can still vibrate in Silent mode. To stop the buzz too, follow the steps for turning off vibration on an iPhone.
Every App Is Silent, Not Just ESPN Fantasy
Silent mode or a Focus is probably on. Apple’s Silence iPhone page explains the Action button and the Ring/Silent switch.
You Cannot Find Alert Preferences in the App
ESPN changes its app layout from time to time. Update the app from the App Store, look for the gear icon or a settings menu, and check ESPN Fan Support if the menu has moved. ESPN also offers live help through Contact Support in the app’s settings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will turning off notifications affect my league or my team?
No. Notification settings only control what your phone shows you. They do not change your roster, your lineup, or any league settings.
Can I turn off alerts for one league and keep them for another?
Yes. In the ESPN Fantasy app, tap the gear icon, tap Alert Preferences, scroll to your leagues, and tap the league you want to quiet. ESPN states that changes to one league will not affect any others.
Do these steps work for the main ESPN app?
The iPhone and Android settings steps work for any app, so you can pick ESPN instead of ESPN Fantasy in the app list. The main ESPN app also has its own alert settings behind its gear icon.
Will I still see ESPN Fantasy alerts after turning off sounds?
Yes. Turning off Sounds only removes the noise, so banners, Lock Screen alerts and badges keep working. To stop the alerts as well, turn off Allow Notifications on the same screen.
Does turning off Sounds for ESPN Fantasy affect other apps?
No. The Sounds setting under Settings > Notifications > ESPN Fantasy applies to that app only. Calls, texts and other apps keep their own sound settings.
Why don’t I see a Sounds option for ESPN Fantasy?
The option is hidden while Allow Notifications is off, so turn that on first. Apple also says the Sounds setting only appears for apps that support it.
Can I silence ESPN Fantasy only at night?
Yes. Schedule a Focus such as Do Not Disturb or Sleep in Settings > Focus. Notifications are held back during those hours and the iPhone returns to normal when the Focus ends.
Can I get rid of an old ESPN app I don’t use?
Yes. If you have more than one ESPN app installed and only use one, here is how to delete apps on an iPhone. Deleting an app also stops its notifications.
Next Step
Start with Alert Preferences and switch off News Alerts and the league categories you never act on. If only the sound bothers you, turn off Sounds for ESPN Fantasy in your iPhone settings. If the app is still too noisy after that, turn off its notifications in your phone’s settings. For a wider cleanup of other apps, follow the steps for silencing notifications on iPhone.
Matthew Burleigh is the founder, head writer, and editor of Solve Your Tech, which he launched in 2012. He has written technology tutorials since 2008 and worked in IT since 2003, including small-business support, IT management, and consulting. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Arizona State University.
Matthew writes practical guides for Windows, iPhone and iPad, Microsoft Office, Outlook, Google apps, and Android. Solve Your Tech’s guides are checked step by step against the device or app maker’s own documentation and tested on his own devices whenever he has the hardware or software, with clear steps, sources, and update dates.
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