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| The Notification Center in iPhone 4S contains all the phone and app events requiring your attention. |
The Notification Center in iPhone 4S is one of the new features of iOS 5. It is designed as a pull down panel that displays widget information, app notifications, and phone and email alerts. This feature is accessible by swiping down from the top of your Apple mobile device screen. By default the Notification Center in iPhone 4S displays information from Yahoo's Weather Widget, and Stock Widget, and the following built-in apps: Phone (for calls), Messages, Reminders, Calendar, and Game Center. The complete list of all apps that will appear in Notification Center can be found in Settings > Notifications.
Choosing the Alert Style
A missed call, an unread text message, a scheduled meeting - all these, by default, will be collectively displayed in Notification Center in iPhone 4S. However, the alert style - how iPhone 4S displays a new event - can be configured separately for each. There are three Alert Style options: None, Banners, and Alerts. To better understand how each alert style is different, let's take Messages as an example. On your iPhone 4S go to Settings > Notification. In In Notification Center: panel, select Messages from the list . This will lead you the the Messages Notification settings (see snap shot below). Let's go through each setting one by one.
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| The iPhone 4S Messages notifications settings allow you to configure how a new message will be handled by the phone and how you will be alerted about it. |
Notification Center (ON/OFF) - If you choose "ON" then new or unread text messages will be displayed in the Notification Center. If you choose "OFF" Notification Center will not monitor text message events in your iPhone 4S, and the Alert Style options (discussed below) will be disabled.
Show (Recent Times) - This will decide the number of the most recent unread text messages that will be displayed in the Notification Center. You can choose between: "1", "5", or "10" recent items. If you choose "1 Recent Item", only the most recent text message will be displayed in the Notification Center - the earlier unread text messages can still be found in your Messages (This option does not delete or mark messages).
Alert Style: None - With this style, only the badge app icon will appear. In iPhone 4S (and the rest of Apple mobile devices) this refers to the small circle attached to the upper right corner of the app icon which indicates the number of unread messages. You will still hear your Text Tone if your iPhone 4S is not in Silent Mode but a snippet of the new text message will not be displayed on your screen.
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| When the iPhone 4S Notification Center Alert Style "None" is chosen, only the badge app icon will appear in the home screen. |
Alert Syle: Banners - This style will flip a small banner in view across the top of the iPhone 4S screen for a few seconds. The banner will contain the name of the sender (if the number is listed in your Contacts) and a snippet of the text message. When the banner flips out of view, the badge app icon (red circle in Messages app icon) will remain visible.
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| When the iPhone 4S Notification Center Alert Style "Banners" is chosen, both the badge app icon and the message banner will appear in the home screen. |
Alert Style: Alerts - This is the classic iPhone message alert style in which a "dialog box" will appear with the name of the sender and the message. This is the only style that will give you the option to reply to the message or close it. Unlike banners, "dialog box" alerts will not go away unless you dismiss it. Read and unread messages will remain in Messages regardless of the dialog box option you choose.
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| When the iPhone 4S Notification Center Alert Style "Alerts" is chosen a preview of the message and/or sender will appear inside a dialog box in the home screen. |
Badge App Icon (ON/OFF) - If this is turned "OFF", the Message app icon in your screen will not display the number of unread messages in a red circle.
Show Preview (ON/OFF) - If this is turned "OFF", a message snippet will not be shown for Alerts Styles Banner, and Alerts.
Repeat Alert (N Times) - Choosing "Never" means you will not be reminded that you have an unread message if you ignored or missed the first occurrence of the notification. Choosing "Once" will repeat the alert once; "Twice" will give repeat the alert twice, and so on.
View in Lock Screen (ON/OFF) - Choosing "ON" will wake up your locked screen and show the new message in Alert Style: Alerts. You will have to unlock your screen to enable message control (reply, delete, etc.).
The options above are the same for the rest of the built-in apps: Phone, Reminders, and Calendar events.
Third-Party Apps Push Notifications
When you download and install an app (e.g., Jetpack, Facebook) and you run it for the first time, you will be prompted if you want to allow it to send you pus h notifications. If you select "Allow" this app can notify you of updates, new messages, and what not. In Notification Center in Settings > Notifications will list the name of the app, and then you can configure the Alert Style along with all the other options available to it in the same way Messages configuration was described above.
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| The iPhone 4S Notification Center has individual settings for each installed app in the phone. |
Notification Center in iPhone 4S is pretty useful. It tracks your emails, messages you have to attend to, important reminders, and meeting schedules all in one place. Since you can control the notification behavior of every single app, the Notification Center in iPhone 4S can be customized to work according your preferences and lifestyle.