HushWhat does Hide Alerts do in Messages on iPhone?
The iPhone guide gives Hide Alerts one job: stop the notifications for a single conversation. What that covers, what still shows on your phone, and what the guide says the sender sees.
Only notifications. Hide Alerts in Messages stops the notifications for one conversation while you continue to receive its messages. The texts still arrive and the conversation stays in your list. The guide adds that senders receive a note that you have notifications silenced. Nothing is hidden from anyone who picks up your unlocked phone.
What Hide Alerts changes, and what it leaves alone
Hide Alerts changes one thing, the notifications for one conversation, and leaves the conversation, its messages and every other setting as they were. The table lists each control the guides document, where it is set, what it stops, and what keeps arriving.
| Control | Where it is set | What it stops | What keeps arriving or showing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hide Alerts | In the conversation list, "swipe left on a conversation, then tap the Mute button", or the contact icon at the top, then "Hide Alerts" | Notifications for that one conversation | Its messages; senders receive a note indicating that you have notifications silenced |
| Allow Notifications off | Settings, Notifications, Messages, "Allow Notifications" | Every notification about activity in the Messages app | The messages; you open Messages to see the texts you missed; senders receive the same note |
| Show Previews | Settings, Notifications, Messages, "Show Previews": "Always", "When Unlocked" or "Never" | Notification previews, which can include text from Messages | The notification, without its preview |
| Text Tone None for one contact | The contact's "Text Tone", with "None" below both "Haptics" and "Alert Tones" | The tone and the vibration for that contact, which the guide calls muting notifications for this conversation | The conversation and its messages |
| A Focus | Settings, "Focus", for example "Do Not Disturb", "Personal" or "Work" | All notifications, or all except the people and apps you allow | Messages; a Focus lets other people and apps know you're busy |
| Screen Unknown Senders | The Filter button, "Manage Filtering", then "Screen Unknown Senders" | Notifications from unknown senders | Their messages, filtered into another folder |
| Block or leave | "Block" a specific person or number, or "leave a group conversation" | Messages for that one conversation completely | Nothing from that conversation |
Does Hide Alerts tell the other person?
According to the iPhone guide, yes: under the Hide Alerts step it says senders receive a note indicating that you have notifications silenced. The Mac guide repeats the note beside its own Hide Alerts switch. The guide attaches the same note to turning off Allow Notifications. What that note looks like, and when it appears, the guide does not describe.
Several how-to pages say the other person is not told. The guide's wording is what this post reports, and it says the opposite.
Two related switches are separate from Hide Alerts. Read receipts are their own setting, which the guide says you can turn on to let people know when you read a message. Share Focus Status is another: when a Focus pauses your notifications, your status appears in Messages, and you can turn it off in one-to-one conversations. The mute page says nothing about Delivered status.
What still shows on your phone
Everything except the notification still shows, starting with the conversation itself in the Messages list. Four things the guides leave in place:
- The conversation and its messages: muting stops notifications while you continue to receive its messages, so the thread sits in the conversation list like any other.
- Unread marks: the Catch up button jumps to the first message you haven't seen in a conversation after notifications were paused. The Unread filter lists the conversations you have not read.
- The app badge: under Settings, Notifications, Messages, the Badges switch shows a badge on the app icon. Whether Hide Alerts changes that count, the mute page does not say.
- Your other devices: the Mac guide has its own Hide Alerts switch for each conversation. Neither guide says whether the setting carries over from one device to another.
On a Mac, Notify me when my name is mentioned still notifies you even if Hide Alerts is turned on. Hide Alerts does not block or hide the messages either. To completely stop getting messages for one conversation, the guide says, you block a specific person or number or leave a group conversation.
To keep the text out of the notification instead, set Show Previews to When Unlocked or Never; see how to hide message previews on your Lock Screen. For the options that go further for one contact, see hide messages from one person. To keep a conversation out of view without losing it, see keeping texts without deleting them and other ways to hide text messages.
Does Hide Alerts silence calls?
Not according to the mute page, which is about whether you're notified about text messages you receive and how those notifications appear or sound. Calls are not mentioned on that page; the guide covers screening and filtering calls on a page of its own.
To silence everything at once, including other apps, the Focus page says you can use Focus to temporarily silence all notifications. Do Not Disturb sits in Control Center under Focus. A Focus can also allow notifications from chosen people and apps while silencing the rest.
Where Hush fits
Hush is a separate messaging app, so this is about new conversations rather than your existing ones. The home screen is a keypad, with no contact or conversation list. Notifications can show the sender's name by default. Choose to show the name, hide it, or mute a contact. How Hush works explains the keypad and the code for each chat.
- Hush conversations happen inside Hush; it does not hide your existing SMS or WhatsApp chats.
- There is no in-app forgotten-code recovery.
Common questions
How to turn off Hide Alerts in Messages
The guide shows the switch rather than a separate off step. Tap a conversation, tap the contact or icon at the top of the conversation, then use the Hide Alerts switch. In the conversation list, swipe left on a conversation and tap the Mute button to reach the same control. The mute page describes turning it on; turning it off is the same switch, the other way. Several how-to pages add a touch-and-hold menu with Hide Alerts in it; the mute page documents the swipe and the contact-icon switch only.
Does Hide Alerts sync to Mac or other devices?
The guides do not say. The Mac guide has its own Hide Alerts switch for each conversation, set from the contact or group icon at the top. A swipe left with two fingers on the conversation in the sidebar reaches the same switch. To hide alerts for several conversations at the same time, select them in the sidebar, Control-click, then choose Hide Alerts. The iPhone guide sets it from the conversation list or the contact icon.
Does Hide Alerts mute a group chat?
The mute page speaks of a conversation rather than a person, and does not single out groups. The Mac guide spells out both kinds: select a conversation, click the contact or group icon at the top, then turn on Hide Alerts. If quiet is not enough, the stronger option the mute page gives is to leave a group conversation.
