First announced at WWDC 2024, Priority Notifications have finally arrived with the iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 beta updates. This feature highlights your most relevant notifications based on app activity and usage patterns. Here’s how to enable it in iOS 18.4 beta.
What are Priority Notifications in iOS 18.4?
Priority Notifications is an Apple Intelligence feature that groups the important notifications in a separate section on the Lock Screen. They’re highlighted in an easily recognizable background. This feature uses machine learning to understand notifications that are most relevant to you, based on their context and your interaction patterns. It ensures that you never miss important alerts, even with a bunch of less relevant notifications.
Since no notifications or related data are shared with Apple or uploaded to the cloud, it protects your privacy. This feature is available on all Apple Intelligence compatible devices running iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, or macOS Sequoia 15.4 betas. The stable version is likely to arrive sometime in April.
How to Turn On Priority Notifications on iPhone
Priority Notifications are turned off by default, but you can easily turn them on in the Settings app on your iPhone. Here’s how to do it:
NOTE
- Go to Settings > Notifications
- Here, tap Prioritize Notifications.
- Finally, turn on the Prioritize Notifications toggle.
When enabled, Apple Intelligence will display notifications that may be important to you, regardless of how long ago you received them. They will appear in a separate section on the Lock Screen, so you can pay attention at a glance. You can swipe up to view all the notifications.
You can’t directly tell Apple Intelligence which notifications matter most to you, but the Priority Notifications system learns from your habits. Over time, it’ll get smarter and better at sorting your notifications.
Just like Priority Notifications, iOS 18 also offers a Priority message feature in Mail that shows time-sensitive emails at the top of your inbox. For instance, a check-in reminder or doctor appointment confirmation. You can expect it to come with a sleuth of new features and changes in iOS 18.4 beta.