Manage notification privacy

Control which apps read your notifications

Some apps need to access notifications from other apps to work properly. For example, a smart driving companion app needs to access notifications from other apps in order to read them aloud when you're driving.

Be sure that apps with access to your notifications have legitimate reasons, because with this access they can:

  • Read all notifications, including personal information like contact names and text messages
  • Dismiss notifications
  • Answer calls
  • Turn Do Not Disturb on or off

Check which apps can read your notifications

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications > Notification read, reply & control.
  2. Under Allowed, review the list of apps.

  3. Tap an app to see which notifications it can access:

    • Real-time communication from apps in use, including navigation and calls
    • Conversations, like text messages and chats
    • Notifications with sound and vibration
    • Silent notifications

Stop app from reading notifications

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications > Notification read, reply & control.
  2. Under Allowed, tap the app name.

  3. Choose one:

    • To stop it from reading certain types of notifications, unmark checkboxes.
    • To stop it from reading any notifications, turn Allow notification access off , then tap Turn off.

If you restrict an app's access to notifications and then find the app isn't working properly, you can restore access.

Allow app to read notifications

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications > Notification read, reply & control.
  2. Under Not allowed, tap the app name.
  3. Turn Allow notification access on , and tap Allow.
  4. Adjust checkmarks if you want to stop it from reading certain types of notifications.

Control lock screen notifications

If you've set a pattern, PIN or password, you can control which type of notifications show on your lock screen and prevent them from revealing private information.

To adjust notifications for all apps:

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications.

  2. To hide sensitive content on your lock screen, turn Sensitive notifications off .

    You’ll get lock screen notifications for an incoming email or chat, but they won’t include message details.

    For finer control, leave this on to allow details, and instead hide sensitive content from specific apps.

  3. To change which notifications show on your lock screen (show all, hide notifications from apps you silenced, or hide all), tap Notifications on lock screen.

To hide sensitive content from specific apps:

  1. Set lock screen notifications for all apps to Show conversations, default, and silent.
  2. Touch & hold the app icon, then tap > Notifications.

  3. Types of notifications the app sends appear here. For each enabled notification that you want to hide:

    1. Tap the name.
    2. Tap Lock screen > Show sensitive content only when unlocked.
TipWhen you turn on Lockdown, notifications won't show on your lock screen.