How to Turn Off Teams Notifications During Meetings (and Avoid Awkward Pop-Ups While Sharing Your Screen)

Introduction:

We’ve all been there—you’re sharing your screen in a Microsoft Teams meeting, and a chat notification pops up from a coworker, your manager, or even worse… your group chat.

While Microsoft Teams doesn’t automatically suppress all notifications during meetings or screen sharing, you can take control of what appears and when. In this post, I’ll show you a few easy ways to keep notifications silent and off-screen while you’re presenting, focusing, or just trying to stay distraction-free.

Do Notifications Automatically Mute During Screen Sharing?

Short answer: No.
By default, Teams will still show toast (pop-up) notifications during meetings and even while you’re sharing your screen. That includes messages, reactions, and call alerts—unless you proactively change your settings.

Option 1: Turn on Focus Assist (Windows Only)

If you’re on Windows, Focus Assist can automatically suppress notifications system-wide—including Teams.

How to Use It:

• Click the notification icon in the bottom-right of your taskbar.


• Click Focus Assist until it shows “Alarms only” or “Priority only.”


• OR go to Settings > System > Focus Assist to set rules like:
  
  
  
  • Turn on automatically when duplicating your display
  
  
  • During specific hours
  
  
  • When using an app in full screen
  
  
  
  

Note: Users can set up a rule to enable Focus Assist during meetings automatically from your calendar.

Option 2: Use Teams’ Built-In Do Not Disturb Mode

• Click your profile picture in Teams.


• Set your status to Do Not Disturb.

While DND is on, Teams suppresses all toast notifications.

Want to still get alerts from your boss or a specific team?

• Go to Settings > Privacy > Manage priority access


• Add individuals whose messages will bypass DND

Option 3: Mute Notifications Per Meeting (Temporary)

If you just want to mute notifications for a short time:

• Go to Settings > Notifications


• Scroll to Meetings and Calls


• Set “Mute notifications during meetings and calls” to On

⚠️ This doesn’t always prevent all pop-ups, so DND is more reliable for screen sharing.

Option 4: Close the Chat Window When Sharing

If you’re only worried about chat pop-ups, consider:

• Closing the Chat pane before sharing your screen


• Sharing a specific window, not your entire desktop

That way, even if a notification comes in, it won’t be shown to everyone watching.

Quick Checklist Before You Present:

Conclusion

Whether you’re leading a webinar, pitching a client, or just trying to focus in a meeting, managing Teams notifications is a small tweak that saves a lot of headaches (and awkward moments). Set up your preferences once—and thank yourself later.