# Notifications

Source: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/notifications
Skill: hig-components-system
Snapshot: 2025-02-02

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<!-- hig-doctor:attribution -->
> **Source**: Apple Inc. Canonical content at https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/notifications.
> This file is a structured index of that content, snapshot 2025-02-02.
> Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc.; this repository provides organization and cross-referencing for AI agent consumption only.

# Notifications

## Anatomy

  * A banner or view on a Lock Screen, Home Screen, Home View, or desktop

  * A badge on an app icon

  * An item in Notification Center

## Best practices

**Provide concise, informative notifications.**

**Avoid sending multiple notifications for the same thing, even if someone hasn’t responded.**

**Avoid sending a notification that tells people to perform specific tasks within your app.**

**Use an alert — not a notification — to display an error message.**

**Handle notifications gracefully when your app is in the foreground.**

**Avoid including sensitive, personal, or confidential information in a notification.**

## Content

**Create a short title if it provides context for the notification content.**

**Write succinct, easy-to-read notification content.**

**Provide generically descriptive text to display when notification previews aren’t available.**

**Avoid including your app name or icon.**

**Consider providing a sound to supplement your notifications.**

## Notification actions

**Provide beneficial actions that make sense in the context of your notification.**

**Avoid providing an action that merely opens your app.**

**Prefer nondestructive actions.**

**Provide a simple, recognizable interface icon for each notification action.**

## Badging

**Use a badge only to show people how many unread notifications they have.**

**Make sure badging isn’t the only method you use to communicate essential information.**

**Keep badges up to date.**

**Avoid creating a custom image or component that mimics the appearance or behavior of a badge.**

## Platform considerations

### watchOS

#### Short looks

**Avoid using a short look as the only way to communicate important information.**

**Keep privacy in mind.**

#### Long looks

**Consider using a rich, custom long-look notification to let people get the information they need without launching your app.**

**At the minimum, provide a static interface; prefer providing a dynamic interface too.**

**Choose a background appearance for the sash.**

**Choose a background color for the content area.**

**Provide up to four custom actions below the content area.**

#### Double tap

**Keep double tap in mind when choosing the order of custom actions you present as responses to a notification.**

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For the complete guidance, including worked examples and illustrations, see the canonical page: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/notifications