5 Ways to Hide Message Notifications on iPhone

You must have wondered how you can stop someone from seeing your text messages if you do not want him or her to. Many people are concerned about the privacy of their messages. Perhaps sometimes you are organizing a surprise party, or planning a holiday trip that you do not want to get in the air. Whatever the reason be, you may be hoping to find a way to stop someone seeing your text messages on your iPhone.

5 Ways to Hide Message Notifications on iPhone

Yes, you can lock your iPhone to stop them from accessing them. However, if your iPhone has parental control apps, they can access all messages on your iPhone. Though there is no getting away from this, you can still stop the notification appearing on the lock screen. We are presenting a few scenarios that could help you hide and lock text messages on your iPhone.

1. Lock Your iPhone

• The first way to hide your messages is to make sure you have a passcode set up on your iPhone. The latest iPhone models have this as a default setting. However, if your iPhone does not have it yet then go to Settings > Face (or Touch) ID & Passcode > Turn Passcode On.
• If you have a passcode set up on your iPhone but someone already knows your password, then change it by following this path: Settings > Face (or Touch) ID & Passcode > Change Password.
• Make sure the passcode you choose is not easily breakable. Because despite Apple’s claims, your passcode is only real protection that you have after your Touch ID or Face ID. If it is easily guessed, then anyone can access your iPhone. So choose a tricky one. Data security experts insist on using numbers and other signs in your password to make it tricky for the hackers.

While this method will not allow anyone to access your messages, but it would not completely stop them from seeing the SMS alerts on your phone screen if you happen to receive a new text.

2. Hide New Message Alerts Without Content

In this case, you will still receive text message alerts but their content will remain private. There will be no preview on the screen.

• Go to your iPhone Settings and tap on the Messages option in the Notifications.
• In the Messages section, you will see Show Previews somewhere down the list. This section is by default set to Tap on this option and choose Never.
• Opting for this choice would mean that whenever you receive an alert, the content of your text would remain private.

On the other hand, if you wish to stop receiving the text message alerts altogether, then follow the next method.

3. Stop Receiving Text Messages Notifications

• In the Settings section, tap on Notifications and then
• Turn off Allow Notifications.
• After making these changes, you will never receive an alert when a message arrives. There will also be no red mark on your Messages icon alerting you about the notification of new the message.
• If you want to know about the new messages, you have to open the Messages app. A blue dot on the message will show that you have a new message.

However, this method has a serious shortcoming. The problem with this method is that it completely stops you from receiving any new message updates. In which case, you may end up missing an important message. Luckily, there is a way where you have a choice to stop notifications from a particular contact.

4. Stop Notifications from Specific Message Thread

• Once again, tap on the Settings and select Find Messages and choose Allow Notifications if it is turned off.
• Open the Messages app now and open the message thread you wish to stop getting notifications from.
• Tap on the (i) in the top right corner of the iPhone screen.
• From the options, choose Hide Alerts. You will not get any notification if a new message is sent to that particular message thread.

5. Hide Messages from a Particular Contact

There is just one last way to hide messages from a particular person. However, to do so, you have to remove them from your contacts. Here is the method:

• Go to the Contacts first and locate the particular contact in order to remove it first.
• Choose the contact and tap Edit. On the bottom, you will find Delete Contact. Choose this option to remove the contact.
• In the Settings section, go to
• In Message settings, scroll down and select Filter Unknown Senders.
• This will not only turn off iMessages from the people who are not in your contact list but also make a separate list for them.

Wrapping Up

By employing any of the methods presented above, you can hide your messages from anyone or from a particular person. If someone is using parental control app on your iPhone then there is nothing you can do to stop them from reading your messages. For any other apparent threat, the above methods are enough to cover your message privacy.