New to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and iOS 5 and wondering how to configure Notification Center so you get the alerts you need but not the interruptions you don't? Luckily, you can choose between 3 different alert styles, from in-your-face popups to subtle banners to none at all. Follow along and we'll show you how!
Popup Alerts
Popup alerts are the old style iOS notifications of the pass, a big box that leaps out at you and won't do anything else until you either cancel it or act on it. While old school, these types of alerts still have their place for anything your really don't want to miss -- alarms, calendar appointments, reminders, etc. If you want to be absolutely, positively certain you see something, set notifications to a popup alert.
Banners
Banners briefly roll down from the top of the screen. If you don't want to be bothered by a notification, you simply ignore the banner and go about your business, dismiss the banner by flicking it away, or just wait a couple of seconds and it will roll back up and disappear all on its own. Because they're subtle, they're best used for things that are nice-to-known but not incredibly urgent -- personal email, social network messages, news alerts, etc. If it's not critical but you are curious, set notification to banners.
None
If you set a notification to none, you won't get an alert at all. No popup, no banner, no nothing. Because you won't be alerted, this is best for apps that you want to keep around but don't want to know about unless you specifically open them -- games you play infrequently, social apps you seldom visit, apps you only use when traveling, etc. If it's more interruption than notification, set it to none.
Configuring alert styles
Apple has included deep granular controls in the Notification Center, so configuring it can seem like a daunting task for new users. It's really simple, however, so just follow these quick steps to help you configure Notification Center in iOS 5:
- Open the Settings app from the iPhone home screen.
- Tap the 'Notifications' settings pane.
- Tap the name of the app you want to configure the alert style for.
- Choose popup alerts, banner alerts, or no alerts.
Bonus tip: Sounds
In addition to the three notification types listed above, you often also have the option to set a sound and/or vibration alert for a notification. Again, if the notification is really important to you -- SMS/MMS/iMessage, Twitter DM or Facebook message, work email, etc. you may want to hear and feel when it comes in.
Otherwise, you can turn sound off and enjoy a slightly more peaceful existence.
- Launch Settings
- Scroll down and tap Sound
- Choose the app you want to set the Sound for
That's it, you're ready to stay informed but not overwhelmed! We'll be back with more Notification Center tips shortly but in the meantime if you have any advice on keeping alerts under control, let us know in comments!
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Reader comments
Daily Tip: How to change your iPhone or iPad Notification Center alert style
ITunes sends notifications? Never seen that, or been asked about it - nor do I see it in Settings.
Weird.
Can someone confirm that they still get a popup on the lock screen (even though everything is set to banner)?
Thank you I was going nuts on how to set texts to private, I hate it when people can read whatever is texted to me
Sorry, good elxapme of how a little bit of research can solve problems, and save some stupid questions. I guess what I was somewhat inadvertently asking was can it cleanly speed up frame rate (fast forward). I thought that most people used an editor for that but was obviously mistaken. In any case both .MOV capable editor I tried lacked this, rather one rendered my footage a jumbled mess of pixelated video with jumbled sound attached, and one didn't have the option at all.
Helpful information. Lucky me I discovered your website by accident, and I am surprised why this coincidence did not happened earlier! I bookmarked it.
I am very disappointed I can't find a way to enable the phone ringer and alarm while disabling the email and text alerts. All other platforms allow this to be done by schedule as a sleep mode or bedside mode.
R
Thanks for your post. Is there a way to block it from my iphone. I have gotten a number of calls. Why is Skype not stopping this scam?