Use notifications on your iPhone or iPad

View and manage your notifications to minimize interruptions, and make sure you receive notifications in the way you expect.

Open from the Lock Screen

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 top left of your screen to open Notification Center.

To clear your notification history, tap the Close button , then tap Clear.

Manage notifications

Change how notifications appear

1. Go to Settings

2. Tap Notifications.

3. Under Display As, choose how you want notifications to appear on the Lock Screen:

   • Count: Shows the total number of notifications at the bottom of the screen. You can tap the count to see notifications.

   • Stack: Shows notifications stacked at the bottom of the screen, with the most recent notification at the top.

   • List: Shows notifications in a list.

     

Change how notifications sound for a specific app

1. Go to Settings.

2. Tap Notifications.

3. Under Notification Style, tap the app you want to edit notifications for.

4. Tap Sounds to turn on audio alerts for a specific app. For certain apps like FaceTime or Messages, you can select a specific tone to play with each notification from that app.

Turn summaries in notifications on or off in iOS 18.1

In iOS 18.1 with an iPhone 16 or an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and later Pro models, you can receive summaries of notifications through Apple Intelligence. When you turn on Summarize Notifications, your iPhone will summarize direct messages and groups of notifications to make them more succinct and easier to read. These summaries of notifications appear in italics. You can always tap on a summarized notification to expand it and view the full text.

To turn Notification summaries on or off:

1. In the Settings app, tap Notifications.

2. Tap Summarize Notifications.

3. Turn Summarize Notifications on or off.

When you turn on Summarize Notifications, you can also turn Notification summaries on or off for specific apps.

Turn Priority Notifications on or off in iOS 18.4

In iOS 18.4 with an iPhone 16 or an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and later Pro models, you can use Apple Intelligence to prioritize important and time-sensitive notifications. Priority notifications appear at the top of the Notification Center, so you can catch up on what you may have missed. You can still swipe up to view all notifications.

1. In the Settings app, tap Notifications.

2. Tap Priority Notifications.

3. Turn Priority Notifications on or off.

To turn Priority Notifications off for a specific app, go to Settings, then tap Notifications. Select Prioritize Notifications, and turn Priority Notifications off for a specific app.

Change alert styles

1. Go to Settings and tap Notifications.

2. Select an app under Notification Style.

3. Under Alerts, choose the alert style that you want.

When you turn on badges, certain app icons can display information. If you turn on badges for Mail, for example, the number of unread emails in your inbox appears above the Mail icon on your Home Screen.

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

Make sure you receive notifications in the way you expect

If you don't get notifications in the way that you want, you might have a specific notifications setting turned on or off.

How to check Focus settings and Notifications settings for a specific app

How to check paired devices and settings for Messages notifications