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
90 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
90 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
90 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)
blacktape242 Avatar
90 months ago
the best way to take control of apple's new app is to delete it.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
budselectjr Avatar
90 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)
jmh600cbr Avatar
90 months ago
Let’s start a petition to have Apple news in Canada
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
iPhone SE Dynamic Island Majin Bu

iPhone SE 4 Leak Shows Dynamic Island, Casts Doubt on Rumored 'iPhone 16E' Name

Monday January 20, 2025 9:01 am PST by
A new iPhone SE is widely rumored to launch this year, and the device has potentially been confirmed today by known leaker Evan Blass. In a private social media post, Blass shared an image of what appears to be source code mentioning an iPhone SE (4th Gen), which casts doubt on the alternative "iPhone 16E" name rumored for the device. However, the name in the source code could be a...
airtag 4 pack blue

AirTag 2 Launching This Year With These 3 New Features

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory. A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June. The original AirTag was announced...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...