It’s a very convenient feature since you can quickly read incoming text messages, but it’s also a privacy concern. Personally, I tend to leave my iPhone laying around the house or in some place where someone else can come and pick it up and play around with it.
It would be very tempting for someone to read my text messages if it pops up right in their faces! If it’s a message I would want rather have remained private, it would be very embarrassing. There are two ways to disable SMS Preview.
Firstly, you can turn off SMS Text Preview on the iPhone and hide your text messages by setting a passcode lock. The only issue with this method is that it requires you to enter a passcode every time you want to use the phone. However, you can also set how long the phone has to be idle before having to type in the passcode.
So you can set it to 1 hour, for example, so that if you receive a text message within an hour of using your phone, you won’t have to put in a code. The other way is to download a third-party iPhone app that hides text messages. Read below to find out.

How to disable SMS Text Preview

Step 1: Go to Settings and then General. Tap Passcode Lock.
passcode lock
Step 2: If you have not already set a passcode on your iPhone, you’ll be asked to do so now.
set passcode iphone
Step 3: After confirming your passcode, you’ll now be able to see the options, which includes “Show SMS Preview”. Slide it to off and change the Require Passcode time to something higher.
show sms preview
The second method, which is better since it does not require you to keep having to enter a stupid passcode, is to download and install the Privacy iPhone app. It basically gives you full control over all SMS privacy settings on the iPhone.
sms privacy
You can prevent the phone from giving any kind of notification when a new SMS text message arrives, or you can have it vibrate, but not show the message, etc, etc. This is what Apple should have included by default in the iPhone, but for some reason has not!
This app is not free, but it might be worth it for those who really have to ensure privacy of their SMS text messages on the iPhone! If you’ve found some other way to turn off SMS Preview without a third-party app, post in the comments!
Also, check out my previous posts about the iPhone like how to setup Gmail and Hotmail on the iPhone and how to migrate from the iPhone to the iPhone 3G. Enjoy!