How to prevent two-factor code being exposed on lock screen in messages notification?


Question

On Lollipop, the text message notification on the lock screen includes some of the content of the text message. For two-factor code text messages, this will display the two factor code to anyone holding the phone even if they cannot unlock it. This seems like a security issue.



There seems to be a setting that more carefully hides the contents of notifications on the lock screen but that makes many of the other notifications useless it is hides data which I feel is useful and harmless to share.



I guess the options are:




  • Hide the content and put up with the inconvenience on other apps in the name of security.

  • Disable notifications from the messages app but then I have no way to know if there are new messages without manually checking.

  • Hide the content and petition other app makers to not respect that setting if the content isn't sensitive. Though I can easily think of examples that I might not consider sensitive but others might.



Are there other options available here? I'd love it if the messages app had a setting to control that behaviour. I'd be happy with the text message sender being displayed instead of the content.


Answer

It is possible to control the nature of the notifications on a per-app basis. If you go to:




  • Settings > Sounds and notifications > App notifications



Then you can select the Messages app and toggle on the Hide content on lock screen option. This isn't as useful as the macro driven approach from Firelord as it hides both the sender and the content. It would be preferable in the case of this question to show the sender but not the content.



Note that this option is only available if you have selected to show all notifications on the Sounds and notifications settings menu.


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