When you just get your first iPhone, you’ll find that it’s super easy to use. It has a nicely organized Home screen and a simple way to find your Settings. But there are little tips and tricks that can take a while to learn, like how to use your Today View and Notification Center effectively.
That’s why iDB is here to help with our “New to iPhone” series. If you fall into thenew iPhone usergroup, this series, along with this article, are for you. Here’s how to use the Today View and Notification Center on your iPhone.
Today View and Notification Center
What exactly are the Today View and Notification Center?
TheToday Viewis a unique spot that contains widgets for apps you choose. For things you use frequently like your to-do list, calendar, or weather, you’re able to pop a widget in the Today View area. Accessing Today is done by swiping right from the left edge of the Home or Lock screen.
TheNotification Centerholds, well, your notifications. Whether its new emails, app alerts, or text message notifications, you can find it all in the Notification Center. Accessing the Notification Center is done with a simple swipe downward on any screen.
Accessing Today View and Notification Center on the Lock screen
You can decide whether or not you wantaccess to Today Viewand the Notification Center from your Lock screen. If you do, it takes a few taps to make it happen.
1)OpenSettings.
2)SelectTouch ID & PasscodeorFace ID & Passcodefor iPhone X and later.
3)Scroll down to theAllow Access When Lockedsection and turn on the toggles forToday Viewand/orNotification Center.
Customizing the Today View
Taking a bit of time to customize the Today View on your iPhone is worth it because it gives you what you use most often in an easily accessible spot.
Adding, removing, and rearranging widgets
AccessToday View, scroll to the very bottom, and tapEdit. This takes you to theAdd Widgetsscreen.
At the top, you’ll see the widgets currently in your Today View and at the bottom are the additional widgets you can add.
When you browse through widgets you can add at the bottom, you’ll notice that some apps offer more than one type of widget. For instance, the Maps app lets you pick Destinations, Nearby, or Transit widgets.
Third-party apps may provide different widgets as well. For example, Google Maps has Directions, Local Guides, Traffic, Transit Departures, and Travel Times widgets. So depending on the app, you can check out different widget options. For something cool, check out theseiPhone weather widgets.
When you finish adding, removing, or rearranging your widgets, tapDoneon the top.
Using the Notification Center
Deciding what you see in the Notification Center is a good way to verify you’re getting the notifications you want.
You might now want that area filled up with game notifications or other app alerts that you don’t care about.
To adjust the notifications you see, head to yourSettingsand selectNotifications. For each app in your list, you may decide whether or not an alert displays in the Notification Center. Tap an app and then select or deselectNotification Center.
It can be a tedious task to do this for every app in the list that you turn on notifications for, but worth it if you want to keep your Notification Center in order.
Actions in the Notification Center
When you swipe to access your Notification Center, you may also perform actions on those alerts.
Tap or swipe right toopenthe app or swipe left tomanagethat app’s notifications,viewa preview of the notification, orclear allnotifications for that app.
Toclear out your Notification Center, tap theXat the top.
Wrapping it up
Hopefully this how-to on using your iPhone’s Today View and Notification Center will help you set them up exactly as you want them.
Are there other things on your new iPhone that you’d like help with? Let us know in the comments below oron Twitterand atutorialmay come of it!
