Apple News, while a valuable source of information for many, can sometimes become an unwanted distraction or generate excessive notifications. Whether you wish to silence its alerts, remove it from your home screen, or simply minimize its presence, this detailed guide will walk you through the various methods to regain control over your device’s news consumption. Understanding these options allows you to customize your iPhone or iPad experience to better suit your preferences, ensuring that you only receive the news you want, when you want it, or even make the app effectively disappear from your everyday interactions.
Table of contents
Silencing Apple News Notifications
The most common desire is to stop the stream of breaking news alerts and daily digests. This process is straightforward and focuses on the notification settings within your device.
- Go to your iPhone or iPad’s “Settings” app.
- Scroll down and tap on “Notifications”.
- Locate and tap on “News” in the list of applications.
- At the top of the News Notification settings, you will see a toggle labeled “Allow Notifications”. Tap this toggle to switch it to the off position (it will turn gray).
- Additionally, you can customize specific alert types (e.g., Sounds, Badges, Banners) below if you prefer to only allow certain types or change their display style without completely disabling all notifications. However, turning “Allow Notifications” off is the most definitive way to silence the app.
Once “Allow Notifications” is off, you will no longer receive any alerts from the Apple News app.
Hiding or Removing the Apple News App
While disabling notifications stops the alerts, the app icon still remains visible. You have a few options to hide or remove the app from your view.
2.1 Hiding from the Home Screen
You can hide the app icon from your Home Screen, moving it to the App Library, where it’s still accessible but out of sight.
- On your Home Screen, gently press and hold the Apple News app icon until a pop-up menu appears.
- Tap on “Remove App”.
- From the next options, select “Remove from Home Screen”. This action moves the app icon to the App Library, which is accessible by swiping left past your last Home Screen page. The app is not deleted and can still be found via Spotlight Search or in the App Library.
2.2 Deleting the App (If Possible)
For most pre-installed Apple apps, a full deletion is possible. However, some core apps might only offer the “Remove from Home Screen” option.
- Press and hold the Apple News app icon until the options appear.
- Tap “Remove App”.
- If “Delete App” is available, tap it. Confirm your choice when prompted.
If “Delete App” is not an option, you can only remove it from the Home Screen as described above. Apple News is generally deletable, unlike some other core system apps. Deleting it completely removes the application and its data from your device.
Managing Content Within the News App
If you prefer to keep the app but want to curate its content, you can do so by customizing your interests. However, some users note that completely blocking all content, especially if you are not a paid subscriber to Apple News+, can be challenging from within the app itself. The Reddit information suggests that blocking all content if you don’t pay might not be fully achievable directly within the app’s interface, implying a focus on subscription-based content filtering rather than outright blocking general news stories.
- Open the News app.
- Tap on the “Following” tab at the bottom.
- From here, you can manage the channels and topics you follow or unfollow, which influences the content shown in your “Today” feed. You can also explore and block specific channels or topics that you do not wish to see.
Turning off Apple News notifications, hiding it from your Home Screen, or even deleting the app are straightforward processes designed to give you greater control over your device; By following these steps, you can tailor your iPhone or iPad experience to ensure that the Apple News app, or its alerts, no longer disrupt your focus or consume your attention unless you actively choose for it to do so. Remember that these settings are reversible, allowing you to re-enable notifications or restore the app at any time if your preferences change.
