Message previews are handy for allowing you to catch a quick glimpse of texts, but they also allow prying eyes to see private conversations. If you have a friend or coworker who has a bad habit of trying to glance at incoming texts, you need to learn how to turn off message previews. Here's how to hide messages on your iPhone by disabling previews.

Why You'll Love This Tip

Learn how to turn off message previews to keep prying eyes from seeing your private text messages.
Hide messages until you're ready to check them.
Figure out why you're not getting text alerts on your iPhone, and get your iPhone to show previews again.

How to Hide Messages on Your iPhone by Turning Off Message Previews

System Requirements

This tip works on iPhones running iOS 16 or later, and was tested on an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 27. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

Message previews can be handy if you want to quickly decide to reply to a message now or wait and reply later. But how can you have private text messages on your iPhone with all these previews popping up? Luckily, there’s an easy way to make texts private. Here's how to hide text messages on your iPhone by disabling message previews:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Scroll down and tap Messages.
Select Notifications.
Scroll down and tap Show Previews.
Now you have a few options. The default option, Always, shows message previews. Alternatively, you can set notification previews to only show When Unlocked, which hides the contents of your messages until you unlock your device. Never will always hide your message previews.

Now, if you selected When Unlocked or Never, you’ll receive text notifications, but they won’t include text previews or banners you’d rather not put on display. For more iPhone privacy tips and tricks, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day.