When your iPhone is locked and you receive a text message, email, or WhatsApp, the screen wakes up and displays a notification banner. By default, this banner often includes a “preview” of the message—showing the sender’s name and the first few lines of text. While this allows you to quickly glance at incoming alerts, it is a significant privacy risk. Anyone sitting next to your phone on a desk can easily read your private messages without needing your passcode. To protect your confidentiality, you can configure iOS to hide the contents of the notification until you authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID.
How to Hide Notification Previews
Apple provides a master switch that applies this privacy setting to every single app installed on your iPhone simultaneously.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down the main menu and tap on Notifications.
- Look at the very top of the screen under the “Lock Screen” heading, and tap on Show Previews.
- You will see three options:
- Always: The full text is always visible to anyone.
- When Unlocked: The banner will simply say “Message” or “Notification” until Face ID scans your face. Once it recognises you, the text will magically expand and reveal itself.
- Never: The preview text is permanently hidden. You must physically tap the notification and open the app to read the message.
- Select When Unlocked (this is highly recommended for Face ID users) or Never.
Changing Previews for Specific Apps
If you only want to hide previews for sensitive apps (like WhatsApp or your banking app) but want to leave previews visible for less important apps (like weather alerts or sports scores), you can override the master switch.
Go to Settings > Notifications, and scroll down to the specific app (e.g., WhatsApp). Tap on it, scroll to the bottom, tap on Show Previews, and change it to “Never”. This allows you to build a custom privacy profile tailored to your exact needs.