If you’re like most people, you probably have a few things going on in your life that you can’t get to the bottom of. Maybe you’re at work and need to take a break, or maybe you’re just trying to relax and take some time for yourself. Whatever the reason, sometimes it’s nice to just take a quick break from everything and clear your head. One way to do this is by disabling notifications on your iPhone. But what if there are some things that you need notifications for but don’t want them displayed on your lock screen? Here are 8 tips on how to disable notifications on your iPhone without having them displayed on the lock screen:
- Open Settings and select General then Security then Notification Center. This will open up a new window where you can disable notifications for specific apps or devices.
- If an app is listed in the Notification Center but doesn’t have a check box next to it, select it and press the X button to disable notification display for that app.
- If an app has a check box next to it but no X button, select it and press the Home button until the notification center pops up with an option to enable or disable notification display for that app.
- To turn off vibrating notifications, open Settings and select vibrations then turn off vibration for all apps except those that have vibrate enabled by default. This will also turn off sound effects for all apps except those that have sound enabled by default.
- To turn off email alerts, open Settings and select Email Alerts then turn off email alerts for all apps except those that have email alerts enabled by default. This will also turn off sound effects for all apps except those that have sound enabled by default. 6) To turn off push notifications (notifications sent through Apple’s Push service), open Settings and select Notifications then toggle Push Notifications OFF for all apps except those that
Change How Lock Screen Notifications Appear
Apple changed the default location of notifications in the iOS 16 update. Notifications now appear in a stack at the bottom of the screen, requiring an upward swipe to display them. This lets you see more of your wallpaper and any widgets you have added to your lock screen.
You can change this behavior under Settings > Notifications using the “Display As” controls. “Stack” is the new default behavior, while “List” is how notifications used to be displayed in iOS 15 and earlier.
You can also choose “Count” to hide your notifications and show a notification count, requiring a swipe to show any pending notifications.
Tap and Hold to See More Information
You don’t have to open a notification by tapping on it to get more information. Depending on the app, if you tap and hold the notification, you may be able to view more details by expanding the notification box.
Some examples include seeing embedded media previews in Twitter and YouTube notifications, the ability to read deeper into the body of an email message using the Gmail app, or accessing options like “Save for Later” on Apple News notifications.
Sometimes, nothing will happen beyond isolating the notification against a blurred image of your wallpaper. This can be handy for showing someone an incoming notification without them seeing the contents of other app notifications.
Reply to Messages on the Lock Screen
You can also tap and hold Messages app notifications to access the quick reply box. This allows you to reply to a message without opening the Messages app or leaving the lock screen. The feature works for both iMessage and SMS conversations.
For this feature to work, make sure “Reply with Message” is enabled under Settings > Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID and Passcode for older devices).
Quickly Mute or Disable Notifications
You can quickly mute whole apps and conversations by swiping left on a notification and tapping the “Options” button.
From here, you can mute the notification for an hour or a whole day, effectively silencing the app or contact temporarily without having to visit the Notifications preferences.
Hit “Turn Off” to permanently disable notifications from that particular app. You’ll need to visit the Settings > Notifications menu and tap on the app in question to enable notifications again.
Quickly Clear Notifications
Swipe left, then hit “Clear” to get rid of a single notification or an entire stack. This is handy when you’ve already caught up on something but don’t want to have to open the app.
See Notifications Even When the iPhone Is Locked
Modern iPhone models use Face ID to unlock your device. This enables a useful privacy feature where the contents of incoming notifications are hidden until the identity of the user can be verified. When Face ID works consistently, this is a relatively seamless experience.
But if Face ID doesn’t work too well or you’d simply like to trade privacy for convenience, you can disable this behavior. Head to Settings > Notifications and tap on “Show Previews.” Then, enable “Always” instead of “When Unlocked.”
Alternatively, you can disable previews, preventing notifications from being revealed even when your iPhone is unlocked. To do this, choose “Never” under the “Show Previews” option. To read the notification, you’ll need to tap and hold the notification.
Deliver Notifications with Scheduled Summary
Notifications can be distracting. If you’d rather keep most notifications enabled but catch up on them at more opportune moments, you can choose to receive notification summaries instead. You can turn this feature on under Settings > Notifications> Scheduled Summary.
When enabled, the feature will provide summaries of notifications at the times you choose. By default, this is 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., but you can change or add more scheduled summaries throughout the day. You can even change which apps are included in the summary.
This won’t affect any Time Sensitive notifications you have enabled, which the iPhone treats differently. These include alerts (like leaving behind your AirPods), messages from important contacts, or notifications that require action on your part, such as those from food delivery apps.
Toggle Time-Sensitive Notifications for Apps
Developers can flag Time Sensitive notifications in their apps, which means those notifications will be displayed prominently regardless of any steps you take to avoid distractions.
You might not regard some notifications as important, so you can choose not to display these under the app’s notification preferences.
Sometimes when you receive a Time Sensitive notification, you’ll see an option directly below it to leave them enabled or disable them.
You can also make changes to this option under Settings > Notifications by tapping on the app in question. Toggle “Time Sensitive Notifications” off to hide them altogether.
Bonus: Focus Modes Hide Distracting Notifications
On top of being able to summarize alerts or disable Time Sensitive notifications, you can use Focus Modes to hide distracting notifications and notification badges during certain hours of the day.
You can even link a Focus mode to a lock screen or Apple Watch face to further promote productivity.
RELATED: How to Hide Sensitive Notifications on Your Android Lock Screen
