Can you see old notifications on iPhone? (iOS 16)

Did it ever happen to you to dismiss a notification out of simple muscle memory or brain freeze without reading it? Or maybe you got a notification that showed the content of a message that later got deleted? Yes, you can now unsend messages on iOS 16. The first thing that would cross your mind is: is there a way to see old notifications on my iPhone? Well, unless you consider notification badges a way to get to old notifications, you’re out of luck. Sadly, a summarized timeline of previous notifications isn’t available on iOS.

How do I see past notifications on my iPhone?

At this time, iOS users don’t have a way to see previously opened or deleted (dismissed) notifications. Android has a built-in Notification History feature that keeps track of all notifications you got in the last 24 hours. Even if you read or dismissed notifications. On the other hand, iOS doesn’t log any received notifications so, to our knowledge, you can’t see past notifications on your iPhone. You get badges on app icons for unopened notifications and that’s it. Once you dismiss, clear, delete, or open a notification — it’s gone for good.

Due to the barred nature of iOS, there are no third-party apps that can do this for you either. Apple doesn’t allow apps to access notifications or usage permissions so you can’t do much in that regard. The only thing you can do is check Notification Center and hope that some notifications are still there. Other than that, you are out of luck.

Some users are adamant about this feature and want Apple to incorporate it but, truth to be told, we don’t expect anything similar to come to iOS on iOS 16.

There’s an option called Notification Summary that will bundle non-urgent notifications and show them at a predetermined time. Time-sensitive and important notifications will come through immediately and you get to choose apps on your own. This can be useful if you prefer to get notifications for selected apps in bundles, but we find it not as valuable as advertised on a day-to-day basis for most users. Unless you get dozens upon dozens of notifications and want to reduce the Notification Center clutter.

You can (and you probably should) send your feedback to Apple at their official Feedback page and ask for this feature. The more users ask for it, the bigger the chance they introduce it in the future. For the time being, make a habit of screenshotting Notification Center.

Thank you for reading and feel free to share your thoughts with us. What else is missing from iOS that you think should be there? Tell us in the comments section below.

FAQ