iPhone (iOS) · Display & Sound
Manage Notifications on iPhone
Notification settings let you control exactly how each app alerts you — as a banner, a sound, a badge, or grouped into a scheduled summary — so your Lock Screen and Notification Center reflect what actually deserves your attention.
How to open Notifications
- Open Settings → Notifications.
- Tap an app to customize its Banners, Sounds, Badges, and Lock Screen visibility.
- Tap 'Scheduled Summary' to add apps and choose delivery times for bundled, less urgent alerts.
- Turn off 'Allow Notifications' entirely for apps you never want to hear from.
What you should know
- Each app has its own notification style: Banners (temporary or persistent), Sounds, and Badges.
- Scheduled Summary bundles non-urgent notifications from chosen apps into one or more delivery times you set.
- Lock Screen visibility can be set to Always, When Unlocked Only, or Never per app.
- Time Sensitive notifications can bypass a scheduled summary or Focus so urgent alerts still arrive immediately.
Government and public safety alerts (like AMBER and Emergency Alerts) cannot be turned off from this screen, by design.
Why it matters
Unmanaged notifications are one of the biggest sources of daily phone distraction, and the difference between a calm Lock Screen and a chaotic one usually comes down to a handful of overly chatty apps. Because each app is configured separately, this screen lets you keep truly important alerts (like messages from people, or delivery updates) immediate while pushing everything else into a scheduled summary instead of an endless stream of interruptions. Getting this right also affects battery life indirectly, since constant notification banners keep waking the screen throughout the day.
Best practices
- Move noisy, non-urgent apps (games, promotional notifications, social media) into Scheduled Summary instead of turning notifications off entirely.
- Set Lock Screen visibility to 'When Unlocked Only' for sensitive apps like banking or messaging if you share a room or workspace with others.
- Turn off Badges for apps whose unread counts don't reflect anything actionable, like News or a shopping app.
- Review notification settings right after installing a new app, since many request an all-or-nothing style by default that's rarely what you actually want.
- Reserve 'Persistent' banners only for genuinely important apps, since they require manual dismissal and can pile up if overused.
Common problems and fixes
- An important app's notifications aren't appearing at all
- Check Settings → Notifications → [App] to confirm 'Allow Notifications' is on, and that it isn't set to Scheduled Summary only when you need it immediately.
- Notifications from one app get silently included in the Scheduled Summary instead of arriving right away
- Remove that specific app from the Scheduled Summary list, or mark its notifications as Time Sensitive from within the app if it supports that option.
- Too many notifications appear on the Lock Screen even with a passcode set
- Set individual apps' Lock Screen visibility to 'When Unlocked Only' rather than relying on a single device-wide privacy setting.
- Notification sounds don't match what was chosen in Settings
- Some apps use their own in-app sound settings that override the system default — check that app's internal notification preferences as well.
Tips and tricks
- Long-press any notification on the Lock Screen or in Notification Center to reveal quick options like muting that app for an hour or a day.
- Use 'Notification Grouping' set to 'By App' if you get a lot of alerts from a single chatty app and want them collapsed into one stack.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a Banner and Scheduled Summary?
A Banner appears immediately when a notification arrives, while Scheduled Summary holds less urgent notifications from chosen apps and delivers them together at set times you choose, like morning and evening.
Can I stop all notifications from an app without deleting it?
Yes, turn off 'Allow Notifications' for that app in Settings → Notifications, which silences it completely while keeping the app installed and usable.
Do Scheduled Summary notifications still make a sound when they arrive?
No, summary notifications are delivered silently as a bundled group at your scheduled time rather than triggering individual sounds or banners.
Related settings
- FocusFocus lets you silence distracting notifications based on what you're doing — like Work, Sleep, or Personal time — while still allowing calls and alerts from specific people or apps you choose to come through.
- Sounds & HapticsSounds & Haptics controls ringtone and alert tones, ringer and alert volume, and the tactile vibration feedback (haptics) your iPhone provides for calls, texts, and everyday interactions like typing.
- Screen Time & FamilyScreen Time shows how you (or your family) use your devices and lets you set app limits, downtime schedules, and content restrictions — especially useful when set up through Family Sharing for a child's device.
More Display & Sound guides for iPhone (iOS)
- Display & BrightnessDisplay & Brightness settings control screen brightness, True Tone, Dark Mode, text size, and Night Shift for warmer colors in the evening.
- True ToneTrue Tone uses ambient light sensors to automatically adjust the display's white balance and intensity to match surrounding lighting conditions, keeping colors looking natural under different light sources.
- Night ShiftNight Shift automatically shifts the iPhone display to warmer colors on a schedule or from sunset to sunrise, reducing blue light exposure that can interfere with sleep when using the device at night.
- Dark ModeDark Mode changes the system interface and supported apps to a dark color scheme, and can be set to switch automatically at sunset and sunrise or on a custom schedule.
- Auto-LockAuto-Lock determines how long iPhone waits without any touch input before dimming and locking the screen, balancing convenience against battery life and security.
- Text Size & Bold TextText Size and Bold Text controls scale font size and weight across the system and supporting apps, making text easier to read without reducing the amount of visible screen content the way zooming would.