How to Take Control of Apple News Alerts in iOS 11 - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

How to Take Control of Apple News Alerts in iOS 11

by

Apple News Icon1Apple News is the built-in news app for iOS 11 that aggregates and curates stories and topics from a variety of third-party news sources. The service is only available in the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. at the time of writing, so not all new iPhones and iPads will come with the stock app installed.

Apple News aims to offer a cleanly presented and personalized news service that caters to your tastes and interests, although one of its default behaviors is to spit out alerts from sources that you may or may not be interested in. Apple News refers to news sources in the app as "channels", and here we are going to run through two ways to control the alerts you receive from them.

How to Control News Alerts From Specific Channels

  1. Launch the News app on your iOS device.

  2. Tap the Following button at the bottom of the screen.

  3. Under the Channels list, look for any news sources that you didn't sign up for, and tap the blue bell icon next to them. If the bell icon next to a channel is greyed out, alerts from it are already disabled; if there's no bell icon beside a channel, it doesn't send alerts at all.
    apple news app 1

  4. To remove a source from your channels so that it no longer shows up anywhere in Apple News, tap the Edit button in the upper right of the screen, and then tap the red minus icon next to the source in question.

Tip: Scroll all the way to the bottom of the "Following" screen and you'll find another option to Manage Notifications. Tapping this opens a dedicated Notifications screen, where you'll see the channels you follow that offer news alerts as well as other channels with alert options that you don't currently follow.

apple news app 2

How to Disable Apple News Alerts Completely

If you'd rather disable all alerts for Apple News in one fell swoop, follow these steps.

  1. Launch the Settings app on your iOS device.

  2. Scroll down the main list and tap News.

  3. Tap Notifications. (Tip: From this screen, you can prevent stories by channels you don't follow from appearing in the News app's "For You" section. Simply toggle on Restrict Stories in For You.)

  4. Toggle off Allow Notifications.

apple news notifications
If later you decide that you don't want to kill off News alerts altogether, this last screen is the one to return to, as it also offers additional options for controlling the behavior of notifications when they're enabled. You could simply stop new alerts from making an audible sound, for example, or just prevent them from showing up on the Lock Screen.

Related Forum: iOS 11

Top Rated Comments

HiRez Avatar
111 months ago
The problem with almost any app that has notifications is they they can’t seem to help themselves from abusing it by sending you a never-ending stream of alerts that swamps your lock screen and notification list.

So for News, like just about everything else for me, Off is the only sane option.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PinkyMacGodess Avatar
111 months ago
I just want to know how to remove completely some of the sources for 'news'. Like I have some of the worst sources popup for science and tech news, and also want to block often wrong Fox News so I don't see their 'reportage' hit pieces anymore.

Resolved: You have to go into one of their articles, touch 'share', and then can 'dislike channel'. Seems a lot less intuitive than just swiping right (or left?) and clicking 'dislike channel'. But I'm finally free of their bullhockey 'news'.:D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
The Game 161 Avatar
111 months ago
the best way to take control of apple's new app is to delete it.
why? it's a very good app for news.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PinkyMacGodess Avatar
111 months ago
I found it terrible, but to each their own.
It requires some participation from the user. I've got quite an eclectic mix of sources, and am generally pretty happy with it. It's what you put into it...
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jonnyb098 Avatar
111 months ago
Dittos. The bias shown in their curation and need to editorialize is shameful.
How is it biased??? I see news stories from CNN, FOX with almost a perfect split.

This is like when people complain about recommendations in Apple Music. The curation is only as good as you make it based on reading habits and likes/dislikes.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
111 months ago
the best way to take control of apple's new app is to delete it.
Dittos. The bias shown in their curation and need to editorialize is shameful.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Next to iPhone

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: It's Out]

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by
Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event...
iOS 27 Icon iPhone

iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
Apple iCloud Plus expansion hero

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Curated Apple Music Stations in Over 100 Countries

Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries. In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....