What notification emails are and why you'd want them
A notification email is a message your iPhone sends to your email address when something happens on your phone or in an app. Instead of only seeing alerts pop up on your screen, you also get an email about it. This is useful when you want a record of what happened, or when you might miss a notification that slides off your screen.
The most common notification emails come from apps like Mail, Calendar, Reminders, and Find My. Your bank app might send one when you log in from a new device. A social media app might email you about account activity. You control which apps send these emails and what triggers them.
Notification emails are different from push notifications — those are the alerts that pop up on your screen right away. You can have one without the other, or both at the same time.
Key Takeaways
- Notification emails come from individual apps, not from your iPhone itself, so you turn them on in each app's settings rather than in one central place.
- Most apps let you choose which types of activity trigger an email — you might get emails about messages but not about likes or comments.
- Check your email spam folder if you set up notification emails but never see them arrive.
- Turning off notification emails in an app does not turn off the push notifications that pop up on your screen.
How to find notification email settings in most apps
Open the app that you want to receive emails from. Look for a settings icon — usually a gear symbol or three horizontal lines in the top corner or bottom of the screen. Tap it.
Look for a section called "Notifications," "Alerts," "Email," or "Preferences." The exact name varies by app. Once you find it, you should see options for different types of notifications. Some apps let you turn email notifications on or off as a whole. Others let you pick which specific events trigger an email — for example, you might want an email when someone messages you, but not when they like your post.
If the app asks for your email address, enter the address where you want to receive these emails. It does not have to be your iCloud email — it can be any email address you check regularly.
Notification emails from Apple's built-in apps
Apple's own apps — Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, and Find My — handle notification emails differently than third-party apps. These apps send emails through your email account settings, not through an in-app menu.
For Calendar and Reminders, open the app and find the event or reminder you want to get an email about. Tap it to open the details. Look for an option that says "Alert" or "Notification." You can usually choose "Email" as the type of alert, and then set how far in advance you want the email — 15 minutes before, one hour before, one day before, and so on.
For Find My, open the app and tap the "Me" tab at the bottom. Tap your name, then scroll down to "Notifications." You can turn on email notifications for when your location is shared or when a device is found.
Why notification emails might not arrive
If you turned on notification emails but are not seeing them, check your spam or junk folder first. Email providers sometimes filter out notification emails automatically, especially if they come from an app you have not interacted with before.
If they are not in spam, go back into the app's settings and confirm that email notifications are actually turned on. Some apps have a master toggle for all notifications, and then separate toggles for each type. You might have turned on notifications but left email notifications off.
Another common issue: the app might be sending emails to a different email address than the one you check. Open the app's settings again and verify which email address is listed. If you recently changed your email address in the app, it might take a few hours for the system to update.
Controlling how many notification emails you get
If you turn on notification emails and suddenly get flooded with them, you can dial it back without turning them off entirely. Go back into the app's settings and look for options like "Frequency," "Digest," or "Batching." Some apps let you choose whether to get an email for every single event, or to get one email per day or per week that summarizes everything that happened.
You can also turn off notifications for specific types of activity. For example, in a social media app, you might turn on emails for direct messages but turn off emails for likes and comments. In a shopping app, you might get emails about order updates but not about sales and promotions.
If an app is sending too many emails and does not have a frequency option, your only choice is to turn email notifications off for that app entirely. You can still get push notifications on your screen if you want.
The difference between notification emails and other alerts
Your iPhone can alert you to something in several ways at once. A single event might trigger a push notification (the alert that pops up on your screen), a badge on the app icon (the red number), a sound, and an email. These are all separate settings, and you control each one independently.
Push notifications and badges are turned on in your iPhone's main Settings app, under Settings > Notifications. Notification emails are turned on inside each individual app. You can have push notifications turned on but notification emails turned off, or the other way around. This is useful if you want to see alerts on your phone but do not want your email inbox cluttered, or if you want a record in your email but do not want your phone buzzing all day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get notification emails from apps that are not installed on my iPhone?
No. Notification emails come from apps on your phone, so the app has to be installed and set up. However, you can receive emails about your account activity on a website — for example, your bank's website might let you turn on email alerts for login attempts or large transfers, separate from your iPhone app.
Will turning off notification emails stop the alerts from showing up on my screen?
No. Notification emails and push notifications are separate. Turning off email notifications does not affect the pop-up alerts on your screen. If you want to stop all notifications from an app, you need to turn off push notifications in your iPhone's Settings app, under Settings > Notifications, and find that app in the list.
What should I do if I never signed up for notification emails but I'm getting them?
Open the app that is sending the emails and go to its settings. Look for notification or email preferences and turn off the email option. If you cannot find the setting, check the email itself — many notification emails include an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom that you can click to stop them.
Can I get notification emails sent to multiple email addresses?
Most apps only let you set one email address for notifications. If you want emails to go to multiple addresses, you would need to set up email forwarding in your email provider — for example, forwarding all emails from that app to a second address.