Ever use the pull-down Notification Center to check your email? It’s an easy way to peek at your inbox, and you can always tap a message to open it within the Mail app.

Nice, but here’s the thing: you can also delete specific email messages directly from Notification Center—or, if you prefer, mark messages as read.

Swipe a mail message in iOS Notification Center

Just swipe a mail message in Notification Center to reveal the Trash and Mark as Read buttons.

Just swipe a message from right to left to reveal a pair of buttons: “Mark as Read” and “Trash.”

Tap Trash, a poof! The email message will be deleted, no Mail app required.

It’s a handy shortcut, sure, but what’s to prevent a stranger from trashing email using Notification Center while your iPhone or iPad is locked?

Well, they can try, but they’ll be prompted to unlock your device first with a PIN or Touch ID. No PIN or fingerprint, no trashing email.

Bonus tip

You can swipe other alerts in Notification Center, too, although doing so usually reveals just an “x” button that’ll clears the alert. You’ll find a “Reply” button if you swipe an iMessage, but you can also just tap the message to reply.

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