Quickly muting notifications while in a video conference

System and application notifications can be very distracting when you are in a video conference session. If you are not using a headset these notifications (such as new email alerts) are picked up by your microphone and broadcast to other meeting participants.

To quickly turn off/on notifications....

 Windows

1. Select the Action Center/Notification icon on the taskbar to the right of the date/time (see below).

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2. Click multiple times on the Focus assist icon to cycle through the available settings. Choose the Alarms Only option

3. After your meeting, go back to the Focus assist icon and click it until it is set to Off.

 MacOS 11 (Big Sur) or later

1. Press and hold the Option key while you click the Date/Time at the top right corner of your screen. A crescent moon icon 

2. After your meeting press and hold the Option key while clicking on the Date/Time again and the crescent moon icon will appear dimmed to indicate that Do Not Disturb is off. 

 MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) or earlier

1. Press and hold the Option key while you click the Notification Center icon in the menu bar (top right corner). The icon will then be dimmed to indicate that Do Not Disturb is on. It stays in Do Not Disturb mode until midnight or until you turn it off, or until it’s scheduled to turn off (as specified in Notifications preferences).

2. After your meeting press and hold the Option key while clicking on the Notification Centre icon again.