Don’t you just hate it when your phone spills the tea that you didn’t want to spill? Of course, you do! There’s nothing worse than receiving a message at exactly the same time as someone else is holding your phone. Even if they aren’t exactly the nosy types, the chances of them mistakenly reading the message from the lock screen are still pretty high.

If you don’t want it to happen to you, there is a way. Any notifications from the Messages app will instead say ‘iMessage’ or ‘Message’, along with the name of the sender and not the whole message. The content of your messages will stay private.

Hiding Message Previews

All you have to do to protect your privacy is hide message previews. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on ‘Notifications’.

Now, scroll down until you find the option for the ‘Messages’ app.

From the Messages settings, tap the option for ‘Show Previews’.

Currently, the setting will display ‘Always’. There are two options to choose from in its place.

If you only want to hide the message previews when your phone is in the lock state, tap the ‘When Unlocked’ option. The notification will say iMessage when your phone is locked. But as soon as you unlock it using FaceID or TouchID, it’ll display the message preview.

If you want to hide the message preview from the notifications at all times, whether your phone is locked or unlocked, then select ‘Never’.


Isn’t it convenient? No more chances of stirring any troubles among your friends and no more chances of your privacy being compromised. You can even hide the previews for all your notifications, and not just the Messages app, if you want.