Disable Messages On Mac Without Disabling It On Phone

Open the Messages App.

On your Mac computer:

• Open a Finder window.
• Go to Applications.
• Find your Messages app.

Conversely, you can use Spotlight search. Just search for “Messages.”

From the Messages app on your Mac, you can make adjustments to how your iMessages and messages function and interact between your iPhone and Mac.

Open the iMessage pane.

In the “Messages” screen, select iMessage from the menu bar.

Other things you can do in the iMessage screen is sign in and out of your Apple ID, change the phone number for your iMessages, choose to send read receipts for iMessages, and of course, disable iMessages completely.

🛈 On older versions of macOS or OS X, the tab is labeled “Accounts” instead.

Disable iMessage.

Under your Apple ID, uncheck “Enable Messages in iCloud”.

Finally, open the Notifications & Focus pane in System Preferences. Select Messages from the sidebar and toggle “Allow Notifications” to the off position.

That’s it! Now, you’ll no longer receive message and iMessage pop-ups on your computer. All your messages, however, will still show up on your iPhone or Apple Watch.

You can opt to silence notifications from iMessage in your Mac settings. If you want to have the option to check Messages on your Mac at your own leisure but not be distracted by constant pings, you can do the following instead:

• Open the iMessage app > Messages > Settings. In the General tab, uncheck the ‘Play sound effects‘ setting. This will silence any pings when you receive new messages.

• Another thing you can do is to navigate to the Apple menu, then System Preferences. Choose Notifications & Focus > Messages. Then, toggle Allow Notifications off.

You can also sign out of iMessage through the app itself. 

First, go to Messages and click on Settings. Go to the iMessage tab and look for the Sign Out button. This can be found next to your Apple ID. 

Once you’ve signed out, you will no longer receive messages through this app. That means you also cannot use it, so you can choose this option if you don’t intend to use the app at all in your Mac device.