Notifications and the Notification Center

Apps can display notifications and play sounds to alert you to updates and changes from your apps. You may want your airline app to send you notifications of changes to your flight schedule, your email app to alert you to new messages, and your news app to send you breaking news headlines. You have the option to choose if an app can:

Allowing apps to show notifications

• Send visual notifications.
• Play a sound with a notification.
• Show the notification on the Lock screen and if the notification goes away automatically (temporary) or requires you to dismiss it (persistent).
• Go to Settings  > Notifications  .

Changing notification settings for a specific app

Every app that has a notification function appears under Notification Style. Tap the app to view settings.

Above are the notification settings for the iOS Health app. Not all apps offer every style of alert.

Notifications settings options

• Allow Notifications. Turn off notifications here to stop all notifications for this app.
• Alerts. Select screens where notification alerts are allowed to appear.
• Banner style. Banners appear at the top of the screen when your phone is unlocked, even if you are using another app. There are two types of Banner notifications: Temporary and persistent. Temporary banners appear on your screen for a few seconds and then go away automatically. Persistent banners remain until you dismiss them by swiping up or tapping them to open the app.
• Sounds. Turn off to silence any notifications from the app.
• Badges. Badges are a small red circle that appears on top of a button to alert you to a notification. The red circle with a number is an alert badge. The number in the circle indicates the number of alerts. The alerts might indicate messages, updates, or something else, depending on the app.
• Show Previews. Change this to change the notification previews for the app. iOS does not show previews when the device is locked by default, but you can override this behavior here.
• Notification Grouping. If you have many notifications, they will be grouped to save space in the notification center. Tap the group to expand and see all the notifications. If you do not like this behavior, you can change it here.
• [App name] Notification Settings. If the app has notification settings that are controlled within the app, this option will appear at the bottom. Tap it to open the app and change the settings.

Using the Notification Center

Swipe down from the top center edge of your iPhone to open the Notification Center and display recent notifications. Any app that you have enabled Show in History will display notifications here until dismissed.

Clearing notifications

Drag a notification to the left to open options to clear or manage the notification.

Older notifications are grouped by app and day and can be cleared with the Clear Notifications button at the top of the app group or the day’s group, or by dragging to the left and selecting Clear.

Opening notifications

Open notifications as follows:

• Locked. You will have to unlock the iPhone to open the notification. Tap to open the notification. Swipe right for additional options (Manage, View, or Clear). On devices with 3D Touch  you can press and clear by tapping the Clear Notifications button  .
• Unlocked. Tap the notification to open. Swipe right for more options.
• If you are using your device. If you are using your device and receive a banner at the top of your screen, pull down on the notification to leave the current app and open the notification’s app. To dismiss it without responding, swipe it up.

Government notifications and alerts

Your iPhone can receive presidential alerts, AMBER and Emergency Alerts, and warnings about extreme weather conditions and/or imminent threats issued by government agencies. By default, Government Alerts are toggled on. When you are receiving an alert, you will hear an alarm-type sound. If you do not wish to receive alerts, go to Settings > Notifications and scroll to the bottom of the screen (below all apps). Under Government Alerts, toggle the type of alert off or on

You can also just silence all your notifications by going to Settings > Do Not Disturb. You can also use Siri to turn Do Not Disturb on or off. Say “Turn on Do Not Disturb” or “Turn off Do Not Disturb.” Note that Do Not Disturb does not turn off alarms or government alerts.

Customizing rings and notifications

You can easily change the sounds of rings and alerts. You will find the settings for apps and system sounds in Settings  > Sounds & Haptics. There are custom settings available for nearly any notification.