Notification Center

New to iPhone? How to use the Today View and Notification Center

Sandy Writtenhouse ∙ November 19, 2019

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 the new iPhone user group, this series, along with this article, are for you. Here’s how to use the Today View and Notification Center on your iPhone.

NCFancy replaces the ‘No Notifications’ text in iOS 10’s Notification Center with storage info

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 17, 2019

While most of the jailbreak community migrated to iOS 11 several months ago, those still rocking the iOS 10 jailbreak will be excited to learn of a new free jailbreak tweak in town called NCFancy by iOS developer Wh0ba.

NCFancy was explicitly designed for iOS 10 users, and as depicted in the screenshot example above, it replaces Notification Center’s useless ‘No Notifications’ text with something you might appreciate more – a pair of widgets that display your handset’s storage capacity usage.

NotificationCenterXI ports the iOS 11 Notification Center experience to jailbroken devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 7, 2017

iOS 11 brings with it a whole host of changes, and one of the most notable right off the bat is the updated look and feel for Notification Center. Unfortunately for jailbreakers, upgrading is out of the question.

If you fall into that category, then new free jailbreak tweak dubbed NotificationCenterXI (iOS 10) by iOS developer LaughingQuoll might interest you. It ports the iOS 11 Notification Center experience to jailbroken devices, allowing jailbreakers to have their cake and eat it too.

FancyNC thins out your notification banners and widgets

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 3, 2017

A new free jailbreak tweak dubbed FancyNC by iOS developer Demy Kromhof makes your iPhone's banner notifications and widgets thinner, decreasing their visual footprint and pleasing the average minimalist.

Among the things it does to achieve the end result is remove both the bulky headers and the unsightly separator lines that appear on elements on both the Lock screen and in Notification Center.

NoTodayView disables the Spotlight widget page on the Home and Lock screens

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 4, 2017

NoTodayView is a new free jailbreak tweak for iOS 10 devices that can disable the Spotlight widget page on both the Home screen and Lock screen, which depending on how you use your device, can be very useful.

While most people like to use the Spotlight and widget page system that comes stock, it gets in the way when you try to use some other Home screen-modifying jailbreak tweaks like Mobius, which allow you to scroll infinitely through all of your Home screen pages and folders without coming to any dead-ends.

Notifications10 brings iOS 10 style notification banners to jailbroken devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 23, 2016

A ton of people are sticking with their jailbroken iOS 9 devices, but are drooling over the new features and interface changes in iOS 10. Fortunately, a new jailbreak tweak called Notifications10 can help bring some of the iOS 10 look and feel to your jailbroken iPhone.

Notifications10, as the name suggests, brings iOS 10-style notification bubbles and banners to your jailbroken iOS 9 device.

Customize your Notification Center interface with CustomNC

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 29, 2016

Minimalists who don't like lines, separators, and other visually unappealing forms of UI elements appearing in Notification Center can use a new jailbreak tweak dubbed CustomNC to make it look just how they want it to.

No, widgets haven’t been removed from iOS 10’s Notification Center

Andrew O'Hara ∙ June 16, 2016

Widgets are a big deal in iOS 10. In addition to having new capabilities such as increased support for 3D Touch and the ability to play—and even stream—video inline, they now have a dedicated side panel on the Lock screen. Now, some people have voiced concerns about widgets having been removed entirely from the Notification Center on iOS 10.

Luckily, that's not entirely true.

How to control Apple TV from your iPhone’s Lock screen with CiderTV widget

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

CiderTV, a software-based alternative for your Apple TV Remote, includes a built-in keyboard and has the ability to control linked Smart TV volume. As of recently, the app comes with a handy widget that makes it possible to control most of the functions of your Apple TV right from the Notification Center. It will save you a lot of time, here's how to get started with CiderTV and set up the widget.

Check out this endless runner game you can play from Notification Center

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 19, 2016

Knowing that Apple has been restrictive in the past on what is and what isn't allowed to pass in the App Store for a Notification Center widget, it can be fun when little gems find their way into the top charts section and you stumble upon them.

While looking through them, I discovered a free endless runner game called Steve - The Jumping Dinosaur, but unlike other endless runners you've played before, this game is played inside of a Notification Center widget rather than from the app itself.

5 Notification Center widgets I use every day

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 24, 2016

When it comes to my own personal iPhone, many of the apps I use on a daily basis have Notification Center widgets that provide information to and even have shortcuts to different actions right from inside of Notification Center.

Apple originally introduced the ability for third-party app developers to create Notification Center widgets with iOS 8, so long as they follow strict guidelines, but that doesn't keep them from being useful.

In this roundup, I'll share my five favorite Notification Center widgets that I use on a daily basis and why I like them.

Agenda Widget+ is a highly customizable calendar widget for Notification Center

Sébastien Page ∙ January 13, 2016

Agenda: Widget+ is an application whose sole purpose is to display a list of your future calendar events in Notification Center. The app itself, which actually acts as the preferences panel for the widget, offers multiple options to fine-tune the data displayed in Notification Center.