How to hide Facebook Messenger notification previews from iPhone Lock Screen for more privacy

Facebook Messenger is among the most popular third-party cross-platform messaging services. And almost everybody with a Facebook account uses it, whether they want to admit it or not. Like Messages and Mail, you can hide Facebook Messenger notification previews on your iPhone or iPad Lock Screen to increase your privacy. In this quick tutorial, we show you how to do that.

Two iPhone mockups with one showing Messenger notification preview and one hiding it

Why hide notification previews from the Lock Screen

Whenever you put your iOS device down somewhere or leave it in a purse, all it takes is a button press, a humble tap, or a simple lift, whether you have a passcode or not, to see who might be messaging you on Facebook and a rather chunky preview of what they’re saying to you. Chances are, the preview has enough characters for nosy people to get the gist of what your conversation is about, and this means your privacy is at risk.

Hiding the previews from the Lock Screen means that Messenger will tell you that you have a missed notification, but it won’t show any of the contents of the message on your Lock Screen. This way, someone who ends up with your device won’t know what was being said, as long as the device is passcode protected (which it should be!)

Check out: 17 tips to secure your iPhone

How to hide Facebook Messenger notification previews

Follow these steps to stop seeing Messenger message previews on your locked iPhone or iPad:

  1. Launch the Settings app, scroll down, and select Messenger.
  2. Tap Notifications.
  3. Tap Show Previews and choose When Unlocked. Now, all future notification previews should be hidden from the Lock Screen.
Turn off Show Previews for Messenger on iPhone

When notification previews are hidden, the content of the message is hidden so that no one without your passcode can see your conversation and hinder your privacy.

Do you wish to stop all Messenger notifications from even appearing on the Lock Screen? Just uncheck Lock Screen after following step 2.

Should you turn off notification previews?

Should you do this on your iOS devices with Facebook Messenger installed? – Well, only you can answer that question, and you have to weigh in whether or not there is a high possibility that someone you don’t know will get ahold of your iOS device and start peeping through your messages via the Lock Screen or not.

It’s a great feature to take advantage of if you like your privacy, but if you don’t foresee it being much of an issue with you that someone might be able to snoop, then there might not be a concern for you to take this action.

Just like Messenger, you can turn off notification previews for any other app or even all apps (Settings > Notifications > Show Previews).

If you found this tutorial helpful, drop us a comment below!

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