This Beta IPhone Feature Uses Artificial Intelligence to Sort Notifications
Priority Notifications is a new Apple Intelligence feature that comes with the iOS 18.4 update , which is currently in beta . This is one of the last AI features we’ll see in the iOS 18 update cycle, and it goes hand in hand with Apple’s Notification Summary feature, although they are different. Perhaps due to Apple’s backlash over notification summary, the feature isn’t even enabled by default. Instead, you need to enable it.
How priority notifications work
Like many new Apple Intelligence features, Priority Notifications uses on-device artificial intelligence processing to determine which notification is most important to you at any given time. It then displays these notifications (sometimes combining two or three and providing a summary) right at the top.
When this feature is enabled and an important notification arrives, you’ll see it in a new “Priority Notifications” field above the rest of your pings. Like many other Apple Intelligence features, this box has the same multi-color glow around it, so you can be sure it was created by artificial intelligence.
What is important and what is not is determined by Apple’s processing algorithms. In testing, I found that things like missed calls, one-time delivery or login codes, messages from my bank about transactions, and emails from my work account always ranked first. This will depend on the person and the use case, but overall this feature is intended to help people who are bad at managing their notifications manually. So, if you’re constantly using dozens of notifications from food delivery apps, shopping apps, or news apps, having a dedicated section at the top that lets you know when you’ve missed an important message or call can be really useful.
How to enable and configure priority notifications
Apple doesn’t enable this feature by default, even if you’ve already turned on Apple Intelligence. To find it, go to Settings > Notifications > Notification Priority and turn it on.
Now you can let Apple do its thing and it will try to figure out which of your notifications are really important.
But to improve the situation, you can go even further. If you scroll down, you will see a list of all the apps that can be pushed to the priority notification system. If you don’t want to see false positives, you can turn on the Priority Notifications field for apps you don’t want to see, such as food delivery apps, news apps, etc.
If you find that priority notifications aren’t for you, you can go back to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications to turn them off completely. If you feel overwhelmed by notifications, you can also spend some time tweaking the rest of your iPhone’s notification system so that it works for you rather than against you.