If you don't want certain messages popping up on your iPhone's screen, you can easily hide them.
We all hide messages for different reasons. It could be that you don't want your partner to see them because it can ruin the perfectly good surprise you've planned for them, or that your workplace strongly frowns upon receiving texts during work hours.
No matter the reason, it only takes a little effort to conceal your messages. You can hide specific messages from people, alerts from text chains, and even notifications from apps.
Here's how to do it all.
How to hide messages on iPhone
You can hide text messages on your iPhone in two main ways:
How to hide messages from a specific person
1. Open the Phone app.
2. Select Contacts on the bottom menu and then find and tap on the contact whose messages you want to hide.
3. Tap Edit on the top right corner.
4. Scroll down, and hit Delete Contact, then tap Delete Contact again on the pop-up window to confirm.
5. Open the Settings app and scroll down to and tap Messages.
6. Scroll down and turn on the toggle next to Filter Unknown Senders under the "MESSAGE FILTERING" heading.
The message sent from the person you removed (or anyone not in your contacts) will now go into a list kept separate from the rest of your messages. To access it, tap Filters on the top-left corner of the Messages app, and then tap Unknown senders.
How to hide message alerts in a specific chain
1. Open the Messages app.
2. Open the message(s) you don't want to be displayed as the chain continues.
3. Tap the icon of a face (or the person's picture).
4. Toggle Hide Alerts on the pop-up.
An alert will no longer display on your screen when a new text from this chain comes in, but you'll still receive the text.
How to hide message notifications on an iPhone
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Notifications. This will open a long list of every app on your phone that generates notifications.
3. To stop all notifications, tap Show Previews at the top of the screen, then select Never. You can also select When Unlocked to only partially limit message displays — you'll still receive notifications, but you won't see their preview.
4. To stop notification alerts from specific apps, like your text messages, scroll down on the notifications page and find the app in question, then tap it.
5. Toggle Allow Notifications off to stop all of the app's displays from popping up, or unselect the options you'd like just below ("Lock Screen" e.g.).
If you turn off all notifications, you will have to specifically open each app to read any messages sent to you, or you will have to open specific apps where you have restricted display options.
