I phone X does not hide sender name from notifications on lock screen

Hi!

Someone else here resolved the issue. Here’s a repost of Fab07’s post:

I followed the steps exactly, and now it is working. Yay!!

Hi, I had the same issue even after trying all setting changes that are described before. Somehow I managed to solve it and go back to having the senders name hidden. All it took was for me to delete WhatsApp and reinstall it from Apple Store, set the notification settings to never preview message and it worked. There is an issue though, if you turn off your phone it goes back to showing the senders name (then you have to do all the delete/reinstall process again), Apple or WhatsApp should address this as it was one of the best features.

It is indeed my most favorite feature from iPhone X beside the near perfect camera phone.

Have seen some frustration in the thread, i feel you guys!! I have been finding a way to solve this until i gave up. This morning i randomly hover the internet to feed my - still curious - stage on this problem. You know what, i solved this!!

1. So i read this thread and tried out several way.

2. My setting in whatsapp : setting >> notification >> show preview OFF

3. My setting in general : setting >> notifications >> whatsapp >> sounds on badge app icon on show on lock screen on show history off show as banners off (and here is the tricky one) show preview by default is show when unlocked. Change it to never. Send some messages to whatsapp and you will find there will be names nor message preview appearing, it will only show notifications. Open whatsapp and read the message. Go back to setting and go back to notification, then you change back show preview to “when unlocked”.

Now it shows the sender name without message preview when you unlock the phone with face ID.

I think this occured because the whatsapp update and how the iOS communicating to the app. By changing it first to never show and set it back to “when unlocked” somehow reset the communication from iOS to whatsapp.

I hope it will help!

Ah! I think you’re right! I had to reboot my phone the other day, and that’s when the settings got screwed up again.

I somehow fixed it without uninstalling and reinstalling the app. After changing all the settings as previously discussed, which didn’t work, I changed the WhatsApp setting to show preview. Then, I got a message, read it, changed the setting back to preview off, and it started working again.

It’s so strange, but at least we know turning the phone on and off is only a temporarily reset on the settings.

I just read an earlier post regarding this, and it appears that there is now a setting in WhatsApp that needs to be set as well. The latest update to WhatsApp has done that. I don't remember the exact location, and I don't use WhatsApp, but there is a preview setting in WhatsApp, as well as the preview setting on the iPhone. You need to set both. WhatsApp 2.18.52 notifications not showing names

Ok so I’ve emailed Whatsapp & you’re right!

There are both settings, these are the exact steps they’ve sent back:

To turn off previews:

1. Go to WhatsApp > Settings > Notifications > turn Show Preview off.
2. Go to iPhone Settings > Notifications> WhatsApp.
3. Turn off Show on Lock Screen, Show in History and Show as Banners.
4. Tap Show Previews > Never.

Note: In iPhone Settings, Show Previewsand the ability to see just the contact name in previews are only available on iOS 11+.

Didn’t try it yet, hoping it works!

For IPhone X, Simply go into your WhatsApp settings, go into Notifications and turn off “show Preview”. You will not be able to preview anything about the received WhatsApp message but it gets rid of the name and message. Hope it helps

Hi I have this same issue but it's not just WhatsApp - it's iMessage and phone calls too. No other apps (e.g. Instagram) are affected, they still just show 'notification' and only reveal it on unlocking with FaceID. This all changed a couples of weeks ago, I think following updating the software.

Is there any way to stop contact names from being displayed, like previously?

Is this happening with all of your notifications or just WhatsApp?

Since it started yesterday I would guess that WhatsApp must have issued an update that changed this. You would need to contact their support site.

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for trying to help. I encountered the same problem Dona had with my iPhone X. I just followed your instructions, but unfortunately, it did not help. Once I select to show previous only when unlocked, I can still see the sender’s name on the lock screen. Before I used to only see “notification”, but now I see the name. I did not have this problem Last week. Somehow this changed automatically in my phone yesterday. Please help!

Same here! My previews are switched off, but previously when a WhatsApp message came through, it would show a notification and just the sender's name... which is how I liked it. Now all of a sudden when I get a WhatsApp message, all I get is a notification and the word "message".

Quite frustrating! On the latest iOS and WhatsApp...

Your advice was really vague, you said there’s a setting in Whatsapp and a setting in iPhone but you don’t know what they are but that they both need to be adjusted - I’ve checked both and tried playing with both settings + nothing’s worked!

I tried this and all it does is fully turn off WhatsApp notifications but the message sound alerts you. It doesn't come up with the WhatsApp icon and 'Notification' without the sender name, the name was then revealed with FaceID - which is what it did earlier this month, and I want back! My imessages are also affected so don't think this is a whatsapp issue.

I think a few people on this thread want the name displayed - please see other queries as this thread is about reverting back to notifications without names displayed on iPhone X.