The consistent addition of new features is undoubtedly one of the primary factors that make the iPhone a fantastic device, with every major version of iOS essentially transforming your phone into something new by considerably increasing the number of things you can do.
That being said, as it can be challenging to know what exactly a feature does at first glance in some cases due to the short text placed on the button not being quite enough to describe the feature’s full extent, users can sometimes hesitate when it comes to utilizing a new feature that they aren’t familiar with.
In today’s article, we will be talking about one such feature you can find in iMessage, in particular, known as “hide alerts” (which allows you to suppress notifications for a specific iMessage conversation) and whether activating it makes it known to the person you’re messaging that you have disabled notifications from them.
So, does the “hide alerts” feature on iMessage notify the person you’re messaging?
Using the “hide alerts” feature on iMessage on a particular conversation will not notify the contact or make it known to them that you have opted not to receive notifications from them anymore, in any shape or form, meaning that you can utilize the feature without any hesitation.
In the upcoming sections, we will further discuss whether the person you’re messaging can see that you have enabled “hide alerts”, go through the process of enabling or disabling the hide alerts feature for a particular conversation, find out whether the hide alerts feature affects calls, and finally, compare the hide alerts feature to the “do not disturb” feature, which serves a similar purpose.
Does “Hide Alerts” Notify the Person You’re Messaging?
While we can all agree that there are many cases where the “hide alerts” feature will come in extremely handy, we also cannot deny that it most likely wouldn’t be a good look if the person you’re messaging were notified that you don’t want to see notifications from their messages anymore.
Fortunately, there won’t be any automatic notification sent to the contact you’re messaging once you go through with pressing the “hide alerts” button on the conversation, meaning that you can opt not to receive notifications from a particular conversation without any worry.
Just as there won’t be any automatic notification going out, there won’t be any indicator on your contact’s phone screen that makes it known you have hidden alerts from them either, allowing you to use the hide alerts feature in a completely private manner.
Even though not replying or replying late to the messages you’re receiving due to the lack of notifications can make the person you’re messaging believe that you have silenced them in some shape or form, your iPhone won’t be the factor that gives you away.
How to Enable or Disable the Hide Alerts Feature for a Conversation?
It is without a doubt that the hide alerts feature is incredibly straightforward to adjust, whether you would like to enable or disable it, as there are multiple ways to perform either action, with each method requiring less than a few button presses.
To enable the hide alerts feature in the quickest way possible, all you will need to do is to press and hold the conversation you would like to hide the notifications from in the Messaging app and press the Hide Alerts button in the menu that comes up.
Alternatively, you can also slide the conversation to the left instead of pressing and holding, which will expose a “silent” icon (alarm bell with a line going through it), that you can press to hide alerts from that conversation.
Finally, the last method you can employ to utilize the hide alerts feature is to go into the conversation by pressing it regularly, navigate to the contact section by pressing the contact’s name or picture (at the top middle), and toggle the Hide Alerts slider to the “on” (green) position.
When disabling the hide alerts feature, you can repeat any of the three techniques above once more, as the buttons you’re seeing will be replaced with counterparts that allow you to show the alerts instead of hiding them.
As all three of these techniques practically create the same result, you can feel free to use the one that you think is the most convenient for you whenever necessary.
Will You Receive Calls When You Use the Hide Alerts Feature?
While it’s known that the purpose of the hide alerts feature is to suppress the notifications that appear as a result of a particular contact you have hidden the alerts from sending a message to you, many users wonder whether it also affects calls.
Utilizing the hide alerts feature won’t impact anything other than the notifications you receive through the Messaging app, meaning that your phone will still ring once a contact from which you have hidden alerts decides to call you or send you a message through an application such as WhatsApp.
As a result, the only effect you will notice when using the hide alerts feature is the notifications coming from the Messaging app, in particular, not popping up on the screen or making a sound when a contact you have hidden alerts from is messaging you, which will stay that way until you manually unhide the alerts.
Hide Alerts vs. Do Not Disturb (Focus Mode) – What Is the Difference?
While the Focus Mode feature, which is also known as the Do Not Disturb Mode, serves a pretty similar purpose to the hide alerts feature, there are a few key differences between the two that make one more suitable than the other, depending on the scenario.
The hide alerts feature makes it possible to silence notifications from particular conversations in the Messaging app, meaning that you only won’t be receiving notifications from the specific contacts you have hidden alerts from if they send you a message through Messaging.
On the other hand, Do Not Disturb, which is practically a pre-defined Focus Mode, is a feature that allows you to silence or allow all types of notifications (and phone calls) from particular applications or contacts, meaning that it’s not only limited to the Messaging app like the hide alerts feature.
Additionally, it’s also worth mentioning that all Focus modes, including Do Not Disturb, are affected by a setting labeled “Focus Status”, which, when turned on, prompts your iPhone to send an automatic notification to the contact who is trying to reach you that your notifications are currently silenced.
Conclusion
While the hide alerts feature is technically an excellent feature for situations where you need to disconnect and relax a bit, we can understand that the mystery of whether it informs the person about your decision or not does naturally create some hesitation.
To summarize, you can use the hide alerts feature in the Messaging app of your iPhone with ease whenever it becomes necessary, as there won’t be any notification sent or indication displayed to the contact you have hidden alerts from, regardless of how long you decide to keep the alerts hidden.
Combined with the fact that it’s pretty quick and straightforward to enable and disable whenever you wish to, the hide alerts feature can definitely be the difference maker that allows you to have a productive (or relaxing) evening in cases where you need a break from messaging.
Mark’s first real encounter with tech was when he had to format his computer with Windows 98 around the age of 6 to quickly get back to playing Heroes of Might and Magic III without having to send the computer in for a repair, which he strangely found to be rather enjoyable since it was a new challenge for him at the time.
While he has always been particularly interested in the software side of things, which eventually led to him becoming a software developer, he enjoys keeping up with the advancements in consumer electronics and smart home technology when he’s not busy coding.