MacOS – Automatically hide notifications from Notification Center while in fullscreen

fullscreenmacosnotifications

I usually enjoy the notification center and need persistent notifications to bother me so I actually get stuff done. However, I would like these notifications to be suppressed (not dismissed, but simply hidden or appearing below) while I am in fullscreen mode (either in a web browser or a full screen app). How can I accomplish this?

Example of desired results:

  1. Regular window mode: notifications on and stay on screen until dismissed
  2. An app enters full screen mode or I watch a movie on YouTube and turn on full screen: notifications temporarily become invisible
  3. I switch back to a normal workspace or exit out of the YouTube movie: notifications appear as normal and stay on screen until dismissed

As far as I know this behavior is supposed to be default in Mac OS. Perhaps it is a bug. I am running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

Update: This behavior appears to be sporadic. On some days the persistent notifications will disappear when I enter full screen, other days they will not. This appears to be the case with in browser fullscreen such as YouTube and Netflix using Chrome and Safari. Other applications, such as Minecraft, always hide the notifications when I use full screen mode.

This is still an issue with Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.

Best Answer

This isn't a perfect answer, but it's a smooth workaround. In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control you can map a keyboard shortcut to "Turn Do Not Disturb On/Off." I chose command shift spacebar as I believe it does not overlap any default keyboard shortcuts and it's similar to activating Spotlight. Now I simply hit those keys to quickly hide and show notifications.