iOS application: how to clear notifications?

Solution 1:

Most likely because Notification Center is a relatively new feature, Apple didn't necessarily want to push a whole new paradigm for clearing notifications. So instead, they multi-purposed [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0]; to clear said notifications. It might seem a bit weird, and Apple might provide a more intuitive way to do this in the future, but for the time being it's the official way.

Myself, I use this snippet:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];

which never fails to clear all of the app's notifications from Notification Center.

Solution 2:

Just to expand on pcperini's answer. As he mentions you will need to add the following code to your application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method;

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];

You Also need to increment then decrement the badge in your application:didReceiveRemoteNotification: method if you are trying to clear the message from the message centre so that when a user enters you app from pressing a notification the message centre will also clear, ie;

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 1];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setApplicationIconBadgeNumber: 0];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] cancelAllLocalNotifications];

Solution 3:

It might also make sense to add a call to clearNotifications in applicationDidBecomeActive so that in case the application is in the background and comes back it will also clear the notifications.

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    [self clearNotifications];
}

Solution 4:

Update for iOS 10 (Swift 3)

In order to clear all local notifications in iOS 10 apps, you should use the following code:

import UserNotifications

...

if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
    let center = UNUserNotificationCenter.current()
    center.removeAllPendingNotificationRequests() // To remove all pending notifications which are not delivered yet but scheduled.
    center.removeAllDeliveredNotifications() // To remove all delivered notifications
} else {
    UIApplication.shared.cancelAllLocalNotifications()
}

This code handles the clearing of local notifications for iOS 10.x and all preceding versions of iOS. You will need to import UserNotifications for the iOS 10.x code.

Solution 5:

If you have pending scheduled local notifications and don't want to use cancelAllLocalNotifications to clear old ones in Notification Center, you can also do the following:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications = [UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications;

It appears that if you set the scheduledLocalNotifications it clears the old ones in Notification Center, and by setting it to itself, you retain the pending local notifications.