How to Find Notifications in iOS 11's New Lock Screen and Cover Sheet

[MacRumors]

Apple made waves last year when it completely redesigned how the lock screen functions on iOS 10 by removing the iPhone's well-known "Slide to Unlock" instruction from the screen. The improvements allowed for a more seamless unlocking experience on iPhones that supported Raise to Wake and Touch ID, and with iOS 11 that process isn't changing (although there are still ways to get around it thanks to Accessibility options).

The main change in iOS 11's lock screen is how the new software deals with notifications and the methods you'll have to go through in finding a push notification you might have missed.

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Finding Notifications in iOS 11's Lock Screen

1. Awaken your iPhone by using Raise to Wake or tapping the lock button.
   
2. Swipe up from the middle of the screen to find a list of notifications, and continue scrolling for older notifications.
   
3. On any one notification, swipe left-to-right to open it directly.
   
4. Or, swipe right-to-left to "view" or "clear" it.

Accessing the New Cover Sheet

1. Unlock your iPhone.
   
2. Swipe down from the top edge of the screen to bring up the all-new Cover Sheet.
   
3. You can interact with notifications as before, and 3D Touch the "x" to clear them all.
   
4. Swipe left-to-right (avoiding notifications) to enter the Today section and find your widgets.
   
5. Back on the notification screen, swipe right-to-left to enter the Camera.
   
6. Swipe up from the very bottom edge of the screen or press the home button to dismiss the Cover Sheet.

With Cover Sheet, the "Notification Center" of iOS 10 has been replaced with a screen that looks visually just like your lock screen, and functions essentially the same way. Notifications are displayed in reverse chronological order, starting with the latest unseen notifications, continuing with "Earlier Today" if you have any missed notifications from the past 24 hours, and then extending into previous days.

Those who purchase an iPhone X later in the year should also note that the redesigned iPhone will house Cover Sheet in its own unique area. When the iPhone X is unlocked, instead of swiping down from the top edge of the smartphone, you'll have to swipe down from the top left ear to bring up your notifications.

Article Link: How to Find Notifications in iOS 11's New Lock Screen and Cover Sheet

 

[roland.g]

So everyone start using iOS 11. Swipe down for Cover Sheet and up for Control Center.

Ok. Now you've got your iPhone X a month or 5 later. Do the opposite. Hmm...

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Did anyone else end up with a gray line running up the left side of their screen after updating to iOS 11?

I'm on a 6+. Didn't install any of the beta versions. Persisted through a restart of the phone. Doesn't show up in screenshots or screen recordings. Doesn't move when I rotate into portrait. Shows up on top of the lock screen, home screen, stock apps, Apple apps from the app store, and third party apps.

 

[JGIGS]

Would be nice if the gestures were the same on both the lockscreen and springboard but at least when I clear a notification from the lockscreen it clears it from the springboard pull down as well now. But Apple bring back the option of grouping notifications by app and clearing all by app. Crazy that this doesn't exist.

 

[jeremiah256]

The ease, discoverability, and standardization of iOS is, or was, one of the main points I’d bring up when asked about the difference between iOS and Android. This isn’t helping.

 

[Neepman]

Changes all so stupidly unnecessary. Looking forward to all the calls from my more senior relatives trying to talk them through this.

 

[Ds6778]

This was one of the dumbest changes in iOS 11. Change just for the sake of it.

 

[44267547]

The ease, discoverability, and standardization of iOS is, or was, one of the main points I’d bring up when asked about the difference between iOS and Android. This isn’t helping.

That's what makes iOS so great, is the simplicity and ease of use. I agree this version of iOS has a learning curve attached, even if it somewhat resembles iOS 10.

 

[Neepman]

Would be nice if the gestures were the same on both the lockscreen and springboard but at least when I clear something from the lockscreen it clears it from the springboard pull down. But apple bring back the option of grouping notifications by app and clearing all by app. Crazy that this doesn't exist.

Crazy? How about 10 years of iOS and STILL no way to lock down app deletion in settings that can be so easily caused by a few careless fingers.

 

[Mike MA]

That one with the lock screen I most certainly wouldn‘t have figured out myself.

 

[macTW]

Anybody with 11 know if there's a setting to let notifications merely show up like in 10?

 

[kklaus]

Crazy? How about 10 years of iOS and STILL no way to lock down app deletion in settings that can be so easily caused by a few careless fingers.

I think you can disallow app deletion in parental controls.
Edit- just double checked and indeed, in restrictions you can turn off “deleting apps”.

 

[JGIGS]

Crazy? How about 10 years of iOS and STILL no way to lock down app deletion in settings that can be so easily caused by a few careless fingers.

Or only being able to auto-arrange icons top left? Or not being able to remove name of apps on the spring board and why only do it on the dock? We could go on forever but at least we don't have to worry about double clearing notifications anymore. Baby steps.

 

[Superhappytree]

The fact that we need an article explaining how to access something that is supposed to be so simple speaks volumes of today’s iOS.

“When I look for good design, I look for something which is easy to use; approachable; friendly; you can use it without a manual; it’s fun.”

- Scott Forstall

Please bring that guy back. I don’t even want to hear anyone bring up skeumorphism, either, that is irrelevant. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about using their iOS devices and how bad, lacking detail, laggy, and inconsistent things were from iOS 1-6 (apart from some lacking features) compared to the widespread extent we have today.

 

[LXC101]

This is cool and all but it would be nice if the Notification Centre didn't change every year (sometimes in ways that aren't entirely necessary).

 

[TMRJIJ]

Crazy? How about 10 years of iOS and STILL no way to lock down app deletion in settings that can be so easily caused by a few careless fingers.

Wha...? There are dialogs that ask you to confirm the deletion of those apps. Are you talking about your kids?

 

[macduke]

What drives me crazy is every time I swipe over to my widgets, I end up opening a random notification. What I've found is if you swipe from the very edge, it will open the widgets without issue. What I do like is that when I'm on the lock screen, I can swipe up from the bottom to see all of my other notifications that got cleared if I unlocked it too quickly at some point earlier.

 

[itsmilo]

The fact that we need an article explaining how to access something that is supposed to be so simple speaks volumes of today’s iOS.

“When I look for good design, I look for something which is easy to use, approachable, friendly, you can use it without a manual, it’s fun.”

- Scott Forstall

Please bring that guy back. I don’t even want to hear anyone bring up skeumorphism, either, that is irrelevant. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about using their iOS devices and how bad, lacking detail, laggy, and inconsistent things were from iOS 1-6 (apart from some lacking features) to the widespread extent we have today.

Multitasking on iPad is the most confusing thing ever. I dont think anyone i know will even be aware of its existence to be honest. So much swiping and flipping around

 

[Superhappytree]

Multitasking on iPad is the most confusing thing ever. I dont think anyone i know will even be aware of its existence to be honest. So much swiping and flipping around

I am one of the few people who much preferred the way it was in iOS 10. If it confused me, a tech geek who’s been using Apple products for years, then I have no idea what the average consumer will think. I’ve even seen people who prefer it telling me to look up how to use it properly after I asked them how to multitask. That goes against the simplicity that Apple (used to) stand for! I like the features of iOS 11, but certainly not the implementation and inconsistencies.

 

[MXBY]

I don't see the reason for doing these changes. It's just more tedious and worse.

The Control Center is quite underdeveloped also. You would think that Apple would like to make it easier to switch to AirPods and Bluetooth devices, but it's even more of a drag now.

 

[DogHouseDub]

Multitasking on iPad is the most confusing thing ever. I dont think anyone i know will even be aware of its existence to be honest. So much swiping and flipping around

I've been on the iOS11 beta for a while now - still haven't figured out how to enable multitasking on my iPad.

 

[JGIGS]

Anyone else almost blow their eardrums out by trying to slide down to show notifications and accidentally hit the volume slider yet? FYI it's not pleasant.

 

[lionel77]

One thing I really hate about the new Notification Center is that it is no longer affected by Reachability.

In iOS 10, you can invoke Reachability by tapping the home button twice, and then you don't have to swipe down from the very top of the screen to open Notification Center. Especially when using the phone only with one hand, that is so much more convenient than having to reach for the top edge of the screen with your finger. In iOS 11, you unfortunately can't do that anymore.

I really hope this is just a temporary regression that they will fix soon.

 

[JGIGS]

The ease, discoverability, and standardization of iOS is, or was, one of the main points I’d bring up when asked about the difference between iOS and Android. This isn’t helping.

Ya I think it started with iOs 7 when they booted Forstall. iOs definitely needs a interface make over. If I could navigate and customize more similarly to Android and get the performance of ios on Apple devices that would be a dream come true. Oh and throw in Apple making more web based applications in icloud (iMessage and iTunes in particular)

 

[MacBram]

Have an utterly blank Cover Sheet?

I discovered a bug. It was really frustrating me that I couldn't see any notifications on my Cover Sheet -- it was completely blank. Not even the time and date showed, let alone notifications!

So, I thought about all the settings I had played with, and remembered I had made a couple of Accessibility changes due to my aging eyes: I had asked for "Bold Text" (which restarts the phone). If you switch Bold Text on, your Cover Sheet goes blank!