We get tons of notifications in a day – some important, others we barely cast a glance at during the day but don’t want to stop receiving either. We save them for the end of the day. But when these notifications pile up, they can become annoying to look at all the time.

With iOS 16, a much-needed change has come to the notifications department. For starters, notifications roll down from the bottom of the lock screen instead of covering the entire screen. But the most important change is that you can further dial down their invasiveness by only displaying a notification count instead of the actual notifications from the app on your lock screen.

So, if you don’t want to clear your lock screen notifications but also don’t want to look at the clutter, this provides a nice balance between the two. The new layout also comes in handy in case you often find your iPhone laying face up amongst people and don’t wish to broadcast the notifications you are receiving.

You can either hide the new notifications manually. Or you can change the default layout so every time you get new notifications, they are only displayed as a count.

Manually Hide the Notifications to Display Count

By default, the notifications on your iPhone will appear as stacks. But you can temporarily hide them in iOS 16 with a single swipe. Go to your notifications on the lock screen and swipe down on them. Remember to swipe on the notifications and not just anywhere on the lock screen; that’ll open Spotlight search.

All new notifications will hide and a number will be displayed in their stead at the bottom. You’ll see ‘1 Notification’ at the bottom, for example, if there was only 1 new notification.

But whenever a new notification arrives, your notifications will become visible again. If you don’t want to miss out on your notifications but also want to de-clutter your screen as soon as you have seen what app the notification was from, you can use this method.

Change the Notification Display Layout from the Settings App

If you are simply not a fan of the stack or list of notifications on the lock screen of your iPhone, you can change the default to a number. So, instead of displaying all the notifications from different apps with their content on your lock screen, you’ll only see the total number of new notifications until you expand them. Note that even when a new notification arrives, you won’t see which app it is from until you manually view them.

To change the default layout, head to the Settings app, either from the home screen or the app library of your device.

Next, locate and tap on the ‘Notifications’ tile to proceed further.

Then, on the next screen, tap on the ‘Display As’ option to continue.

Finally, on the ‘Display as’ screen, tap on the ‘Count’ option to switch to display the count of the arrived notifications on your lock screen.

Now, new notifications on your lock screen will appear at the bottom as a count. To view the notifications, tap or swipe up on the displayed number.

Once you unlock your iPhone, they will no longer be new notifications. So, there won’t be any number on the lock screen, even if the notifications are still in the Notification Center. In case you wish to go back to the list or stack layout, you can change it from the notifications settings at any time.

With iOS 16, you can make sure the arriving notifications are less invasive as well as occupy minimal space on your lock screen. The whole ordeal is very intuitive and you’ll get used to it in no time at all.