16 Reliable Methods when Not Getting Text Notifications on iPhone

| Updated on February 13, 2024

Are you not getting text notifications on your iPhone? Don’t worry. You have landed in the right place.

iPhone text notifications issues can be due to many common reasons. Yes, you read it right. The reason for ‘iPhone not getting text notifications’ ranges from misconfigured notifications or other settings to backend technical glitches in the Message app or iOS itself. The latter one is a little scary, isn’t it? 

Well, you need not bother about that; whatever your reason for not getting message notifications on your iPhone, you are most likely to find the solution here. So, without wasting further time in talking, let’s jump right into the solution to this tedious issue.

Check Notification Settings on your Phone

If not getting text notifications on your iPhone, the first thing to do is check the notification settings. See if the notifications are turned off, and if so, it is the reason why your iPhone not getting text notifications. And, as you have guessed, simply turning on notifications will solve the issue.

Here are the steps by which you can check the notification settings and know how to turn on text notifications on your iPhone:

  1. First, open the Settings app on your device.
  1. Tap on the Messages section.
    Select Messages
  1. On the following page, select the Notifications option.
    allow notification1
  1. Next, ensure that the toggle button of Allow Notifications is turned on. If it isn’t, tap on it to enable text notifications on your iPhone.
    Notification ipnone
  1. Finally, also ensure that Lock Screen, Banners, and Notification Center, all three are selected, so that notification appears on your phone screen when you receive it.
    allow notification3

Unmute Your Contacts in Messages

You may already know that you can mute chats in the Messages app. And, by doing so you won’t receive message notifications from the person you have muted. Further, it is possible that you have muted someone mistakenly or forgotten about it. Again, leading to the dilemma, “Why am I not getting text notifications on my iPhone?”

So, to get through this difficulty, check if you have muted the conversation, and simply unmute it to start getting notifications. Go through the steps to know how you can do this:

  1. Open the Message app on your iPhone.
  1. Now, scroll through your list of chats, and locate the conversation with the cross-out bell icon.
  1. In order to unmute the chat, swipe it left, and hit the bell icon that appears on your screen. Voila! Your chat will be unmuted and you will start receiving notifications on your iPhone.
    Tap on the bell icon to unmute

Ensure iMessage is Enabled

Are your iMessage notifications not working on your iPhone or is your iPhone not sending text messages? It may be because it is turned off! You can again start receiving iMessage notifications by turning them on, which you do by going through the process below:

  1. Go to Settings on your phone.
  1. Tap on the Messages section.
    Tap-on-Message
  1. Ensure that the iMessage toggle button is turned on.
    Turn on iMessage
  1. Additionally, on the same screen, tap on the Send & Receive option, and check that your contact info, phone number, and email address are correct.

Change Notification Sound

In case you have not set any notification sound on your device, or it is set to a very dim one, you may come to think that you are not getting message notifications on your iPhone. Thus, the simple solution to this ‘iPhone no sound on the text’ problem is to check your notification sound and set it to one loud enough to hear.

Stated below is the process you need to follow to accomplish this:

  1. Once again, open the Settings app on your iPhone.
  1. Scroll down to Sound & Haptics and tap on it.
    Tap on Sounds & Haptics
  1. Next, select the Text Tone option.
    Select Text Tone
  1. Lastly, go through all the message tones available, and select the one that you find fit for text notification iPhone.
    Select a sound (chord)

Check Custom Message Tones for Individual Contacts

You can assign personalized ringtones and text tones to each of your contacts on your iPhone. If you set it to none by mistake, you will not hear any notifying sound when that person texts you. In order to check if this is the case, follow the process jotted down:

  1. Launch the Contacts app on your iPhone.
  1. Next, tap on the name of the person, for whom you are not getting any notifications when receiving a text message on your iPhone.
  1. Then, tap on the Text Tone option.
    Tap on Text Tone
  1. After that, select any tone and ensure that ‘None’ is not selected.
    Select an Alert Tone & tap Done
  1. Once you have selected the notification sound, tap Done to save the changes.

Use Time Sensitive Notifications Feature

iOS quickly sends Time Sensitive alerts and keeps them on the Lock Screen for an hour. So, if you are facing iPhone text notification issues, then you can use this feature as a workaround for the difficulty. Here’s how to activate Time-Sensitive Message alerts:

  1. Visit the Settings app on your device.
  1. Tap on the Messages section inside Settings.
    Select Messages
  1. Next, select the Notifications option.
    Notification
  1. On the following page, turn on the Time Sensitive Notifications by tapping on its toggle button.
    Turn on Time-Sensitive Notifications

Check for Blocked Contacts

If your iPhone is not showing text notifications, then blocked contacts can also be the reason behind it. If you are expecting a message from someone, but didn’t get the notification, check if you have blocked that person. When you block someone, you don’t receive any message notifications or any messages from them. Further, the ‘iPhone not sending text to Android or other devices’ issue can also arise, if the user is blocked.

Thus, follow the steps below to check if you have mistakenly blocked the contacts, and unblock them:

  1. Launch the Settings app.
  1. Tap on the Phone section inside settings.
    Select Phone
  1. Then, select the Blocked Contacts option.
    Tap on Blocked Contacts
  1. Finally, you will see the list of persons you have blocked. Go through the list. If there’s someone you want to unblock, swipe left the contact name, and select Unblock.
    Tap on Unblocks

Enable the ‘Notify Me’ Feature

Have you muted one or more chats in the Messages app because you were getting too many alerts, but now you are missing out on critical messages? If you enable Notify Me, you will receive an alert whenever someone mentions you in a Messages chat, even if it is muted.

Following is the process to enable this feature:

  1. First, go to your phone Settings.
  1. Tap on the Messages section.
    Select Messages
  1. On the following page, find the Notify Me option and turn it on by tapping on its toggle button.
    Turn on Notify Me

Ensure that DND or Silent Mode is Not Enabled

If you have accidentally enabled the silent or Do Not Disturb (DND) mode, then, of course, you are going to think that your iPhone is not giving text notifications. Because what these modes do is mute your phone. You will be receiving several notifications, but you won’t be hearing any notifying sound, thus, giving you the impression that you are not getting text notifications on your iPhone.

For disabling DND mode, follow the steps below:

  1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open the Control Center.
  1. In the Control Center, tap on the Focus icon, select any other option, or entirely turn it off.
    Turn off Focus

Remove the Message App from the Scheduled Summary

If you have Messages enabled in the Scheduled Summary, you will only get text notifications at predetermined times, thus making you think that text notifications are not working on your iPhone. 

You can remove Messages from the Scheduled Summary and start receiving real-time notifications by following the instructions below.

  1. Go to the Settings app on your iOS device.
  1. Tap on the Notifications section.
    Tap on Notifications
  1. Next, select the Schedules Summary option.
    Tap on Scheduled Summary
  1. Scroll through the list of apps on the next page, find Messages, and turn off the toggle button.
    Turn off Messages

Turn Off Hide Alerts

If you have enabled ‘Hide Alerts’ for specific or some contacts, then you will not get text notifications from them. In order to again start receiving notifications, unhide alerts by following the procedures below.

  1. Open the Messages app on your iPhone.
  1. Now, tap on the conversation for which you are not getting notifications on your iPhone.
  1. In the chat window, tap on the contact’s name present at the top of the screen.
    contact name1
  1. Lastly, ensure that the toggle button of the Hide Alerts option is turned off.
    Turn off Hide Alerts

Force Quit the Message App

If the Messages app fails to function properly, it might be unable to send out notifications when text messages are received. In most circumstances, you can resolve this by force-stopping the program and then relaunching it. Here’s how you can do this:

  • iPhone X and Later: Swipe up from the bottom of your screen. Swipe left and right to find the Message app. Swipe it up to close it.
  • iPhone SE, 7, and 8: Tap twice on the Home button. Now, swipe to find the Messages app preview. Swipe it up to close the app.
  • Earlier Versions: Tap twice on the Home button. Find the Message app preview screen, and tap and hold it. Then, tap on the red badge.

Disconnect Bluetooth Devices

If you suspect that your text notifications are not working on your iPhone, it may be because you have a Bluetooth device connected to your iPhone. In such a case, message notifications may be sent to that device rather than the phone’s speaker. 

In order to reverse it, open the Control Center by swiping down from the top of your screen and hit Bluetooth to turn it off. Alternatively, you can turn off the Bluetooth device directly to ensure it isn’t connected anymore. Then, examine if you are now receiving message notifications on your phone.

Disable Message Forwarding

Still, thinking why am I not getting text notifications on my iPhone? Have you checked whether you have turned on Message Forwarding on your device? If the answer is Yes, or even if you are not sure about it, this can be the reason for not getting notifications on your iPhone. Why? Well, because your messages will be forwarded to the device you have to receive your forwarded messages, and thus, you may not get notified for the same. 

So, turn off the Message Forwarding by following the steps given further to resolve the issue:

  1. Visit the Settings app on your iPhone.
  1. Scroll down in Settings and tap on the Messages section.
  1. Next, tap on the Text Message Forwarding option.
    Tap on Text Message Forwarding
  1. Finally, turn off the toggle button for each device you are forwarding your messages to.
    Turn off forwarding

Restart Your iPhone

Any technical glitch in the backend of your device can lead the apps to not function properly. This can also cause your message app to receive no text notifications on your iPhone. However, there’s a simple way to resolve these background issues, which is restarting your iPhone.

In order to restart iPhone X and later versions, simultaneously press and hold the volume down button and side button.

To restart older iPhones, press and hold the sleep/wake button till the slider to power off appears on your screen. Release the button, and slide the power off button to turn off your phone.

Update Your iPhone

Since the Message app is a default iOS app, with iOS upgrades, Apple introduces new Messages functionality, as well. An outdated iOS version can also lead to the ‘iPhone messages notification not working’ issue. It’s a good idea to keep your iPhone up to date to avoid problems like text message alerts not working.

So, if you have a pending update available on your iPhone, download it right away by going through the process given below:

  1. Begin by launching the Settings app on your iOS device.
  1. Tap on General on the Settings page.
    setting
  1. Then, tap on the Software Update option.
    Tap on Software Update
  1. Finally, if there is any update available, you will see the option to download and install it on the next screen. Tap on that option to start the installation.

Sources

iPhone User Guide – Apple Support Page

Not receiving text messages notifications – Apple Discussions





Janvi Panthri

Senior Writer, Editor


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