Managing notifications

Patterns
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Integrating with Focus

  • A Focus helps people filter notifications during a time period they reserve for an activity like sleeping, working, reading, or driving.

  • Delivery scheduling lets people choose whether to receive notification alerts immediately or in a summary that’s delivered at times they choose.

  • Passive. Information people can view at their leisure, like a restaurant recommendation.

  • Active (the default). Information people might appreciate knowing about when it arrives, like a score update on their favorite sports team.

  • Time Sensitive. Information that directly impacts the person and requires their immediate attention, like an account security issue or a package delivery.

  • Critical. Urgent information about health and safety that directly impacts the person and demands their immediate attention. Critical notifications are extremely rare and typically come from governmental and public agencies or apps that help people manage their health or home.

Best practices

Build trust by accurately representing the urgency of each notification.

Use the Time Sensitive interruption level only for notifications that are relevant in the moment.

Sending marketing notifications

Never use the Time Sensitive interruption level to send a marketing notification.

Get people’s permission if you want to send them promotional or marketing notifications.

Make sure people can manage their notification settings within your app.


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

Apple HIG text and imagery are © Apple Inc. This page is a structured index of Apple’s canonical documentation (snapshot 2025-02-02), provided for quick reference and AI-agent consumption — it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. Read the original at developer.apple.com (opens in new tab).

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