macOS keyboard shortcut to dismiss notifications?

Question

I'd like to be able to dismiss and open macOS Notification Center notifications with the keyboard.

(I'm not talking about opening/closing the Notification Center itself.)

Is this possible in some manner with a tool or setting or other software?

Answer 1

You can create an Automator service to run this Applescript and give it a keyboard shortcut in the System Preferences Keyboard shortcuts

This will close alert and banner notifications.

---

In Automator choose a new service

---

Add a Run Applescript Action

and replace its code with:

my closeNotif()
on closeNotif()
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Notification Center"
        set theWindows to every window
        repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
            set this_item to item i of theWindows
            try
                click button 1 of this_item
            on error

                my closeNotif()
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell


end closeNotif

---

Set the 'Service receives [no input] in [any application]'

Save the service.

---

Open the Keyboard shortcuts in System prefs and set your shortcut for your service under 'Services'

Now any newly launched app will pick the shortcut up.

(Note: I structured the script to counter throwing an error that will occur when the notifications/windows start to close.

Notifications/window are numbered 1 through to the total count. But as they close the script would still be working off the old count. But the system will be reassigning the index of the windows.

So where we say start at 1 -6 the script will try and close window 1, window 2, window 3 and so on. But the system has reassigned the window numbers 1,2,3 to the last remaining windows. But the script will try and close window 4 and throw an error because it does not exist. The script will catch this and deal with it.)

---

If you want to click the 'Show' button on an Alert Notification, change the button you click from 1 to 2.

click button 2 of this_item

Banner notifications do not have a button 2. But you can just click the window.

So this code should take care of showing.

my closeNotif()
on closeNotif()
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Notification Center"
        set theWindows to every window
        repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
            set this_item to item i of theWindows
            set cnt to count buttons of this_item
            try
                if cnt > 1 then

                    click button 2 of this_item
                else
                    click this_item
                end if
            on error

                closeNotif()
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell


end closeNotif

Answer 2

Not quite what you asking for:

You could limit the time displayed for banners type with

Terminal and paste in the following

defaults write com.apple.notificationcenterui bannerTime #

with the # number sign replaced with the amount of seconds you want banner notifications to stick around, then log off and back on.

To restore original function (5 seconds) use defaults delete com.apple.notificationcenterui bannerTime

I know you said no: but you could cycle the Notification on/off with a script and assign a keyboard short cut to it. Temporarily disable Notification Center in Mountain Lion from command line?

Answer 3

Here is a simplified JXA script which is confirmed working on macOS Ventura and Sonoma:

// Modified from
// https://gist.github.com/lancethomps/a5ac103f334b171f70ce2ff983220b4f
"use strict";
function run() {
  const SystemEvents = Application("System Events");
  const NotificationCenter = SystemEvents.processes.byName("NotificationCenter");
  const notificationGroups = () => {
    const windows = NotificationCenter.windows;
    return windows.length === 0
      ? []
      : windows.at(0).groups.at(0).scrollAreas.at(0).uiElements.at(0).groups();
  };
const findCloseAction = (group) => {
    const [closeAllAction, closeAction] = group.actions().reduce(
      (matches, action) => {
        switch (action.description()) {
          case "Clear All":
            return [action, matches[1]];
          case "Close":
            return [matches[0], action];
          default:
            return matches;
        }
      },
      [null, null]
    );
    return closeAllAction ?? closeAction;
  };
const actions = notificationGroups().map(findCloseAction);
  for (const action of actions) {
    action?.perform();
  }
}

It can be run via Automator as shown in @markhunt's answer or with Hammerspoon like this:

-- Close all visible notifications in Notification Center.
hs.hotkey.bind({"ctrl", "cmd"}, "delete", function()
  hs.task
    .new("/usr/bin/osascript", nil, {
      "-l",
      "JavaScript",
      os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.config/hammerspoon/jxa/close_notifications.js",
    })
    :start()
end)

Note: hs.task is preferred over hs.osascript due to Memory leak in hs.osascript.

Answer 4

The previously accepted answer does not work in Big Sur. This script does work.

Answer 5

Closing all notification (alert/banner)

Similar to the answer by markhunte in that a bit of AppleScript is used, but the implementation is vastly improved.

Namely, unlike the script by markhunte, closes also banner notifications, doesn't crash when a notification doesn't have a close button, works even when notification center is open, works with notifications where the close button isn't the first button, detects stuck notifications, and so on...

Using an Alfred workflow

If you use Alfred, you have this workflow available: Notification dismisser. It will close all the currently displayed notifications with a shortcut or Alfred keyword. Super simple to use and works as expected.

Without using Alfred

If you don't use Alfred, you can take the main script from the workflow and (same as the answer by markhunte) using Automator save it as a "Quick Action". Then set a keyboard shortcut for it in System Preferences. Does the same as the workflow, albeit requires a bit more effort than clicking "install" as with Alfred.

Answer 6

The original script by markhunte works but stops after a few windows. It may be that the list of windows only includes the ones that are currently visible. When you have too many this won't close all. I added a loop outside the main loop to query the windows until we get a window count of zero. Here is the code:

my closeNotif()
on closeNotif()
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Notification Center"
        set theWindows to every window
        set nWindows to number of items in theWindows
        repeat until nWindows is 0
            repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
                set this_item to item i of theWindows
                try
                    click button 1 of this_item
                    delay 0.2
                on error

                    my closeNotif()
                end try
            end repeat
            set theWindows to every window
            set nWindows to number of items in theWindows
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell


end closeNotif

Answer 7

An indirect approach is in System Preferences > Notifications, to set the alert style to Banners. The alerts will show briefly and then dismiss themselves. To see the alerts again using the keyboard, press Fn-N to show the Notification Center.

(If using a keyboard without a Fn key, you can assign a shortcut from System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control > Show Notification Center.)

Answer 8

Here's what worked for me (Big Sur). It's faster, more reliable, and more responsive than the accepted answer.

1. Create a clear_notifications script

You can do that by running this script from your terminal

write_target=~/bin/clear_notifications
mkdir ~/bin
cat << EOF > $write_target
#!/usr/bin/osascript
Usage: clear_notifications [partial_title]

Clears notifications from the notification center if they contain the string in [partial_title].
If no arg is passed in, all notifications are cleared.
on run argv
  tell application "System Events"
     try
       set _groups to groups of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of group 1 of window "Notification Center" of application process "NotificationCenter"
      repeat with _group in _groups
        set temp to value of static text 1 of _group
          set _actions to actions of _group # Get all the actions within this group
          set isInScope to true
      if (count of argv) &gt; 0 then
        set searchTerm to item 1 of argv
        if temp does not contain searchTerm then
          log &quot;Didn't find any notifications matching &quot; &amp; searchTerm
          set isInScope to false
        end if
      end if

      if isInScope then
        if exists (first action of _group where description is &quot;Clear All&quot;) then
          log &quot;Found 'clear all' for &quot; &amp; temp
          perform (first action of _group where description is &quot;Clear All&quot;)
        else if exists (first action of _group where description is &quot;Close&quot;) then
          log &quot;Found close for &quot; &amp; temp
          perform (first action of _group where description is &quot;Close&quot;)
        else
          log &quot;Didn't find close action for &quot; &amp; temp
        end if
      end if

  end repeat
on error errMsg
    log &quot;Error: &quot; &amp; errMsg
end try

end tell
end run
EOF
chmod u+x $write_target

2. Connect the script to a keyboard shortcut.

You can do this using the keyboard shortcut instructions from the accepted answer (similar instructions here), but I find automator clunky and cumbersome for such a simple task. I much prefer using Better Touch Tool.

• Go to Better Touch Tool configuration
• In the left panel, select "All Apps"
• Add a new keyboard shortcut of your choice and choose Execute Terminal Command (Async, non-blocking) as the trigger.
• Enter ~/bin/clear_notifications into the textbox where it says Enter Terminal Command