Daily TipsiPadiPhone

How to change how notifications appear on the iOS/iPadOS Lock Screen

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, but you can change how notification alert styles appear. Here’s how:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Notifications.
  2. Select an app under Notification Style. 
  3. Under Alerts, choose the alert style that you want. If you turn on Allow Notifications, choose when you want the notifications delivered — immediately or in the scheduled notification summary.

With iOS 15 and later and iPadOS 15 and later, you can turn on Critical Alerts so notifications come through even if your iPhone is muted or you have a Focus set up.

(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.