How to Customize Group Notifications on Your iPhone

The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes

Q. I like the way notifications are stacked in iOS 12 so my iPhone screen is much more relevant when I glance at it. I used to have to scroll through multiple notifications from an app to find important ones. Stacked notifications make it easier to see alerts that are important to me.

But the stacked notifications don’t work well for some apps, like text messages or missed calls. Sometimes I see the top notification, but don’t notice the stack, so I don’t see a text message or missed phone call.

Is there any way to turn off stacked notifications for some apps but not others?

Also see => 10 Features in iOS 12 That Will Make You Want to Update Now

A. Great question. Group notifications is a very useful feature of iOS 12. When app notifications are grouped, they appear as a stack on your lock screen. The most recent notification appears on top of the group and the number of notifications in the group appears.

By notifications being grouped, your iPhone lock screen can appear much better organized. Notifications are grouped automatically, unless you turn off that feature.

Sometimes news apps will send out multiple notifications for one event, cluttering your lock screen and hiding important alerts. Or maybe a game app will notify you that it’s your turn against multiple players. Or a shopping app may give you several notifications about sales and coupons. For those apps, notification grouping works well.

Tap on a grouped notification to see all the other notifications from that app stacked below it. Tap Show Less to re-group them.

But for other apps, you may not want notifications to be grouped. You may see a notification of an unimportant text message at the top of a group, and miss an important one that’s nestled below it. Or you may see a notification of a missed call from a spam caller and not see notification of a missed call from the company trying to hire you.

The good news is that you can customize group notifications so that some apps use group notifications, while others do not. The bad news is that there is no one setting to turn off group notifications for all apps. You must turn off group notifications app by app if you don’t want this feature for all of your apps.

How to Customize Group Notifications on Your iPhone

To customize group notifications, go to Settings => Notifications. There you will see your apps, along with the notification settings for each app.

If you have notifications turned on for an app, tap the app name to open a new page where you can adjust the notification settings for that app. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Under the OPTIONS section, tap Notification Grouping. A new screen will appear with these choices:

• Automatic
• By App
• Off

Automatic is the default setting. Notifications will be grouped when it makes sense to do so. For example, if you only have three notifications on your lock screen, they won’t be grouped. Or your iPhone may separate out notifications for ongoing conversations in Messages or What’s App.

By App means that all notifications for a single app will be grouped, even if your iPhone would not otherwise group notifications from that app.

Off means that notifications for that app will not be grouped. Notifications for that app will appear as they did in iOS 11 and earlier.

How to Use Instant Tuning to Customize Group Notifications

Going into Settings to adjust your notifications became “Old School” with iOS 12. Now you can manage your notifications straight from the lock screen, saving you time and steps with a feature called Instant Tuning.

Instant Tuning is a handy feature that lets you adjust settings directly from the notification. With 3D Touch, you can also perform tasks directly from the notification. (3D Touch lets you perform certain tasks by pressing and holding the iPhone screen. 3D Touch is currently on the iPhone 6s/Plus, iPhone 7/Plus, iPhone 8/Plus, iPhone X, iPhone Xs/Plus, though not the iPhone XR.)

For example, with 3D Touch phones, if you get a notification of a new episode of a podcast, you can press on the notification to begin to play the episode. Or if you get a notification of a text message, you can reply from the lock screen.

Instant Tuning also lets you manage app notification settings directly from the notification. With any iPhone, you can swipe the notification to the left to reveal options:

• Manage
• View
• Clear

Manage lets you adjust the settings of the notification.

View lets you view the notification.

Clear deletes that notification from your screen.

Tap Manage to see different options for managing notifications from that app. Or, if you have an iPhone with 3D Touch, you can tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the tweet to see these notification management options.

Whether you tap the Manage tab or press the three dots, you’ll see a screen like this to manage your notifications for that app.

You can tap Deliver Quietly, which adds notifications from that app to your Notifications Center, but removes that app’s notifications from your lock screen. In the Manage screen, you can also turn off all notifications from that app by tapping Turn Off…

Tap Settings in the Manage screen to be taken directly to the notification settings for that app. From there you can follow the steps above to un-group notifications for that app.

Your Thoughts

Are you enjoying grouped notifications in iOS 12? Have you ever missed an important notification because it was hidden in a group? Have you turned off group notifications for any apps?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!