What Does Hide Alerts Mean? Understanding and Utilizing This Feature

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Do you get bombarded with one too many notifications and message alerts? Then, you probably want to know more about how to stop them. You’ve come to the right place! In this article, you’ll find out the answer to: “What does Hide Alerts mean?” And you’ll learn how to use this feature easily. I’ll also explore its pros and cons, and any troubleshooting issues.

While messaging apps on your phone or desktop make it easy to keep up with conversations with friends, family, and colleagues, getting too many alerts can seriously disrupt your day. Imagine getting notifications for each new message in a group chat or alerts from marketers and all the apps you’ve installed while trying to do your work. It’s annoying, to say the least.

So, read on and take better control of your messaging experience!

Origin of Alerts in Messaging

Reacting quickly to messages is important, and alerts help you do that by letting you know immediately when someone sends you a message. Before the Internet, many office devices, such as telephones or fax machines, had blinking lights that alerted people when an urgent message was on its way. Early digital alerts were also simple. Remember “You’ve Got Mail” (1998)? The film’s title derives from the notification people got when they had a new email in their inboxes. Today, alerts normally show you the name of the person sending a message, and sometimes even a preview of the message itself on your screen. 

The Need for ‘Hiding’ Alerts

There can be many reasons for ‘hiding’ alerts. Privacy concerns are one of them. Maybe you need to ensure that an alert about a private or sensitive conversation doesn’t pop up on your screen while you’re in a meeting. By using the ‘Hide Alerts’ function, you can avoid potentially embarrassing situations. 

Too many message alerts may leave you feeling distracted. It’s always tempting to check out the newest message when you should be focusing on something else. However, your overall performance and concentration may suffer from these interruptions.

Another reason for hiding alerts on your phone is if you’re receiving too many notifications. The average user receives 46 app push notifications on their smartphone. Sometimes this information is just more than you can process, and often it isn’t even important to you. Hiding alerts for some conversations and groups may be a way of reducing notification overload.

Related: What Does Unknown Caller Mean & How to Find Out an Unknown Caller’s Number?

What Exactly is “Hide Alerts”?

‘Hide Alerts’ is a function in Messages available on all iOS devices. It helps you manage and customize your notifications, silencing chosen conversations, individuals, or groups.

‘Muting’ lets you silence all conversations on the Messaging app. ‘Hide Alerts’, on the other hand, gives you more control, allowing you to choose which particular conversations you want to silence. ‘Blocking’ is the most extreme option, as it not only silences the contact but also prevents you from seeing messages from this contact in the future. If you use ‘Hide Alerts’, you will still see all the messages when you check the app.

Features and Functions of “Hide Alerts”

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Using ‘Hide Alerts’ can come in handy when you have numerous conversations on the Messages app, but would only like to be notified about new messages in a few of them. In effect, ‘Hide Alerts’ lets you prioritize some conversations while leaving others in the background. You can read all the messages at your own leisure later, without getting annoying alerts.

Hide Alerts On Smartphones

‘Hide Alerts’ is a function on all iOS devices, including your iPhone. It works pretty much the same way across devices. It’s similar to the Do Not Disturb function but applied to individual conversations and contacts on the Messages app.

If you’re using an Android phone, there are similar functions for the Google Messages app that you can use. On most Android phones, if you want to ‘hide’ alerts (notifications) for a particular conversation in the Google Messages app, you need to open the relevant conversation and tap ‘More Options’. Then, in the contact’s Details, choose Notifications>Silent. On Samsung Galaxy devices, for instance, you can also turn off all lock screen notifications by going to Settings>Notifications>Lock screen notifications. 

Hide Alerts On Desktops

If you need to hide notifications on your Mac, it’s easy. The process is very similar to other iOS devices because they all share Messages as their native messaging app.

If you’re using Windows, you can use Google Messages on your desktop. To turn off desktop notifications, go to the chat’s Settings>General Settings>Notifications. Once there, turn off the toggle on ‘Allow Notifications’. Other functions that help you turn off notifications on your desktop include the Focus Assist function (Windows 10) and the Do Not Disturb mode.

How to Enable “Hide Alerts”

You can enable the ‘Hide Alerts’ mode in your Messages app. You can choose which particular contacts and groups you wish to silence, leaving alerts on for only the most important of your conversations.

Enable Hide Alerts On iPhone

Here’s a step-by-step guide to enabling ‘Hide Alerts’ on your iPhone:

1.  Open the conversation you wish to silence in your Messages app.

2.  Tap on the contact’s profile picture. You will see a menu with various options. Scroll down until you see ‘Hide Alerts’.3.  Turn on the ‘Hide Alerts’ toggle.

3.  Turn on the ‘Hide Alerts’ toggle.

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Make sure that the bell icon on your conversation now has a line through it. This means that ‘Hide Alerts’ has been successfully turned on for this conversation. 

Enable Hide Alerts On Android

Here’s how to hide the alerts for particular Google Messages conversations on your Android:

1.  Open Google Messages and choose the conversation you wish to silence.

2.  Tap on the contact and then on the three stacked dots in the upper right corner.

3.  Tap People & Options, then choose Notifications.

4.  You can then toggle the Notifications off so that you won’t receive any more of them for this contact.

The toggle should be pulled to the left and be grey (inactive).

Related: iPhone speaker not working during calls: Reasons And fixes

Limitations of the ‘Hide Alerts’ Feature – What It Can’t Do

Now that you’re no longer wondering about “What does ‘Hide Alerts’ mean?”, let’s clarify what this useful function can’t help you do.

First of all, it won’t make your conversations completely private. It can help you hide the alerts from prying eyes when you’re around other people, but it doesn’t address any other privacy issues. Your messages and information may still be available to service providers, hackers, or the government under certain conditions.

It also doesn’t stop you from receiving the messages. While you won’t see the alerts and your contact won’t get a read receipt, the messages will still be received. 

Potential Drawbacks of the ‘Hide Alerts’ Feature

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It’s also important to remember that while useful, this function can have serious potential drawbacks. You risk missing important messages or reading them too late to react properly. 

It may also complicate your social interactions since people might assume that you are ignoring their messages. This is why it’s necessary to consider these risks, especially if you’ve decided to hide alerts from people who are important to you or from whom you expect to receive high-priority messages. 

Hide Alerts: Common Problems and Their Solutions

Sometimes you select ‘Hide Alerts’ for some of your conversations, but the alerts still pop up on your screen. Here are several solutions you can try:

1. Make sure that all the conversations, you want to hide alerts for, show a bell icon with a line through it. If that’s not the case, repeat the steps for enabling ‘Hide Alerts’. 
2. Turn your iPhone off and then turn it on. 
3. Update your iPhone to ensure that you’ve got the latest version of IOS.

Expert Tips and Hacks

If a problem with ‘Hide Alerts’ persists, and none of the above solutions help, you could submit your issue to the Apple Support Community. All the questions and answers are sorted by device type, and you can first browse the answers to see whether someone has already had a similar issue. 

Resorting to third-party tools that help you manage your notifications is a smart move if you have trouble reducing notification overload. Some of them, like Shift, allow you to view all your apps in one place, choosing which messages and notifications you’d like to see. 

Alternatives to “Hide Alerts”

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Alternatives to ‘Hide Alerts’ include Muting and Blocking contacts, and each option has benefits and drawbacks that you might want to consider. 

Muting Conversations

You can silence all notifications from Messages on your iPhone by tapping the app icon and selecting ‘Mute’ from the menu. While this function successfully stops the alerts, it doesn’t let you choose which conversations you want to silence. A serious drawback is that you won’t receive notifications for any of your chats – priority or not. 

On Android, the ‘Mute’ function works similarly to iPhone Messages’ ‘Hide Alerts’. It’s an option you can access when you tap on an individual conversation or contact. If you choose to mute them, you will not see any notifications about their messages until you unmute them again. 

Blocking Contacts

Blocking a contact is the most drastic measure you can take, with regard to messaging, and it’s usually reserved for annoying spammers or users you don’t wish to communicate with ever again. The benefit of this option is that it stops you from receiving any further messages from the blocked contact. A serious drawback is that you won’t be able to see this contact’s messages at some point later time, which you might want to leave yourself the option of doing. If it’s an irritating colleague or a family member, hiding alerts for their messages may be a better choice.   

Related: How to Record Incoming Calls on iPhone Without App 

What Does Hide Alerts Mean? FAQs

Q: What Is the Difference Between “Hide Alerts” and Muting?

A: While ‘Hide Alerts’ mutes selected conversations in Messages, it’s different from the ‘Mute’ setting. ‘Mute’ is usually selected for the entire app, preventing it from sending notifications. ‘Hide Alerts’, on the other hand, can be selected for a particular conversation or group chat. 

Q: Does “Hide Alerts” Make My Messages Private?

A: No. It prevents message alerts or previews from accidentally being seen on your phone’s screen by people around you, but it doesn’t ensure your messages’ privacy in any other way. 

Q: Can I Still Read Messages After Enabling “Hide Alerts”?

A: Yes, you can still read all your messages when you open the app. 

Q: Is There a Way to Auto-Enable “Hide Alerts” for Specific Times?

A: You cannot schedule ‘Hide Alerts’, but you can use the Do Not Disturb function to automatically stop alerts, notifications, and calls for a specific time. Go to Settings>Focus>Do Not Disturb, and then choose Turn on Automatically. There’s also an option to choose which apps and people will still be able to contact you during this time. 

Q: What Should I Do If the “Hide Alerts” Feature Is Not Working Properly?

A: Try turning your phone off and then switching it on again. Don’t forget to update your iPhone so that you have the latest version of IOS. 

Related: How to See Someone’s Location on iPhone?

Conclusion

With so many notifications and messages coming our way, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. If you need to focus or you’re just tired of receiving notifications for conversations you don’t care about, use the ‘Hide Alert’ option to choose which messages to receive. 

Try customizing all the alerts you get on your phone to receive only the alerts you really care about. This will save you time and the hassle of being disturbed when you least want. The ‘Hide Alerts’ function helps you manage your conversations and choose which of them are top priority.   

References:

• Allthings.how
• Appletoo.us
• Candid.technology
• Live2tech.com
• Macobserver.com

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