How To Hide Notification Previews And Increase The Privacy On Your iPhone In iOS 11

The iOS Notification Previews feature for apps is probably the biggest privacy flaw currently found on your iPhone and iPad. It’s a leak channel that not even the 6-digit Passcode, Touch ID or the revolutionary Face ID can protect. If you care about the privacy of your conversations and other app data, you surly noticed that info displayed by a notification, can be easily read, by a third party, that’s in the visual range of your iPhone’s or iPad’s screen.

iOS 11 gives you the option to block these leaks, however this also kills the convenience and requires you to unlock your iPhone and tap on the notification whenever you want to read that new iMessage that just landed, a new mail or any other notification that requires your attention. So, are you ready to sacrifice time and allot it to opening notifications and reading the content?

How To Disable Notification Previews
iOS 11 comes with an “innovative” notification system that combines the former Notification Center and Lock Screen into a single unit labeled Cover Sheet. You can opt to disable the Notification Previews displayed in the Cover Sheet by following these steps:
1. Open the Settings app from your iPhone / iPad Home screen.
2. Browse for Notifications -> Show Previews.
3. Select When Unlocked or Never to display previews accordingly.
Info: “Never” hides all previews no matter if your iOS device is locked or not. “When Unlocked” shows the content of the previews when the iPhone isn’t locked, and hides them when the smartphone is locked. More, the “Never” option disables previews for notifications sliding in from the top of the screen, when you’re actively browsing the iPhone!

Fact: To be clear, disabling notification previews, hides only the content of a notification. The alert itself is still displayed, but you only get info about what app has unread notifications. For example in Messages you only know that a new text has arrived. You can’t see the sender, nor the preview of the content.

Tip: Are you aware about the new iOS 11 Screen Recording feature?