Saturday, October 12, 2024
Daily TipsiPhone

How to change notification alert styles on your iPhone and iPad

Notifications alert you to many things on your iPhone and iPad, including incoming messages, new emails, and calendar events. Notifications work slightly differently for each app; however, you can view and manage your notifications to minimize disruptions throughout the day.

Open from the lock screen

You can see your recent notifications on the Lock Screen by picking up your iPhone or waking your iPad. You can also do these things from the Lock Screen:

Tap a single notification to open the app that it’s from.

Tap a group of notifications to view all recent notifications from that app. 

Swipe left over a notification to manage alerts for that app, or clear the notification.

Touch and hold a notification to view the notification and perform quick actions if the app offers them.

To show the contents of notifications on the Lock Screen without unlocking your device, go to Settings > Notifications > Show Previews, and select Always.

Open from Notification Center

Notification Center shows your notifications history, allowing you to scroll back and see what you’ve missed. There are two ways to see your alerts from the Notification Center:

  • From the Lock Screen, swipe up from the middle of the screen.
  • From any other screen, swipe down from the center of the top of your screen.

To clear your notification history, tap the Close button (the “x” button), then tap Clear.

To manage notifications

To manage your notifications from the Lock Screen or Notification Center:

  1. Swipe left over an alert or group of alerts.
  2. Tap Options, then select from these options: 
    • Mute for 1 Hour
    • Mute for Today
    • View Settings
    • Turn Off

You can also tap View Settings to change your alert styles or alert settings for a specific app.

(This how-to is based on my experiences and info on Apple’s support pages — where the images sometimes come from.)

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.