Skip to main content

iOS 17: How to move notifications to the top of your lock screen

Notifications on an iPhone with iOS 16.
Joe Maring/Digital Trends

Updated from an older iPhone to the new iPhone 15? You may have noticed that your notifications have changed. Where once they sat nestled at the top, now, they appear at the bottom, stacked atop one another. It's a relatively small change, but an important one, as it dramatically changes how and where you find your notifications.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • An iPhone running iOS 16 or iOS 17

This change came about in iOS 16, and has carried over into the new iOS 17. If you don't like it, then we have some bad news: Unfortunately, there's no way to move your notifications back to the top.

But there are other ways to make your notifications a bit more accessible. If you want to view each notification separately on the lock screen, well, that's something you can do. In a very unlike-Apple move, the company offers a way to customize your notifications. They still appear at the bottom, but you can unstack them so they aren't overlapping, making them easier to read.

The lock screen on the Apple iPhone 15 Plus.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

How to change how notifications appear on iOS 17's lock screen

If you want to make some tweaks to how notifications look and act, there's an entire section of the settings menu for you. Here's how to find it.

Step 1: Open Settings.

Step 2: Tap Notifications.

Step 3: Go to the Display as section and select the display mode you want to use. By default, iOS 16 and 17 selects Stack, which has notifications stacked at the base of the screen. If you select List, it will unstack the notifications on the lock screen so you can view them separately.

Other ways to change iOS lock screen notifications

Just changing the way notifications are displayed on your lock screen isn't the only element you can change. You can use the Notifications options to change how notifications for individual apps appear or are delivered, and you can also set up some useful tools to help you manage what appears and when.

The first of these is Scheduled summary. When enabled, this bundles up non-important notifications and delivers them at a time that's convenient for you. If you're sick of getting a barrage of low importance notifications throughout the day, but still want to read them at a certain time, e.g., when you're finished with work for the day, then this is worth setting up.

You can also toggle whether previews of notifications are shown or not. This defaults to When unlocked, meaning iOS will tell you you have a notification for an app, but not what's in it until you unlock. This is important for privacy, but if you'd rather know if something is important before unlocking, then you can change this to Always. Otherwise, you can also select Never to have notifications never tell you what's in them; you won't know what's new until you open the app in question.

Finally, there's also an option to turn off notification popups while you're using SharePlay or screen mirroring, again, perfect for keeping your notifications private.

Prakhar Khanna
Prakhar Khanna is an independent consumer tech journalist. He contributes to Digital Trends' Mobile section with features and…
iPhone 17 price looks more certain to rise for first time since the iPhone 12
Apple might be preparing its first iPhone price increase in five years
iPhone 16 Pro Max next to the 16 Plus, 16 Pro and regular iPhone 16

For years now, Apple has launched the base model iPhone at $799 - but in 2025, more and more signs are pointing towards prices being increased for the introduction of the iPhone 17.

The likelihood of an iPhone 17 price increase was raised by the Wall Street Journal in May, and now Counterpoint Research notes in its recent 2025 shipment forecast that "cost increases are expected to be passed on to consumers" by not only Apple, but Samsung as well.

Read more
5 rumored iOS 26 features we could see at WWDC 2025
An iPhone 16 laying on a shelf with its screen on.

Apple’s upcoming WWDC 2025 showcase is going to be a busy one, even though the expected AI-powered software rebirth may not land until next year. In the meantime, reliable sources have spilled the beans on what we might expect for the next major iOS overhaul. 

Starting with the name, Apple could skip iOS 19 and could go straight from v18 to v26. We are also expecting a design overhaul, something that could draw inspiration from Vision OS. On the functional side, an AI health coach would be a huge draw for fitness enthusiasts. 

Read more
Why you shouldn’t care what number Apple puts on your iPhone’s software
The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max's screen.

One number may change to another number at an important industry event on June 9, and despite some of the headlines that have been circulating around the news, this succinct explanation of what may happen allows you to guage its real importance. Apparently, Apple may use the WWDC 2025 keynote presentation to announce a change from the expected iOS 19 software’s name to iOS 26, and here’s why you shouldn’t worry about it. 

Many people won’t even know

Read more