I hate having to manually enable one of my favorite Android features

One of the best things about Android compared to iOS is the notification system, and it’s easy to see why. Between features like notification cooldown, notification groups, and other granular controls, Android phones make it easy to cut out the noise. We’ve even uncovered an upcoming notification rules feature in Android 17.

However, my favorite notification-related feature is notification history, and it was introduced in Android 11 way back in 2020. I just wish that Google enabled it by default on new phones. Here’s why.

As the name implies, the notification history feature lets you view a log of recent notifications displayed on your phone. This log goes back roughly 24 hours and shows the notification as you saw it, along with the timestamp.

It’s a fantastic feature, and I’ve often used it when I’ve accidentally swiped away an alert. In the past, dismissing a notification meant you lost it forever. But now, I simply need to visit the notification history page to view it. This can be accessed by tapping Settings > Notifications > Advanced settings > Notification history on Samsung phones. Meanwhile, Pixel owners can find it via Settings > Notifications > Notification history.

This feature is also useful if you’re suffering from notification overload and would like to reduce alerts from unnecessary apps. The notification history page neatly groups alerts from the same app into a single section, giving you a good idea of the most offending apps so you can decide whether to keep their permission or not. After all, do you really need yet another reminder to sign up for Uber One?

Notification history remains a big feather in Android’s cap compared to iOS, as Apple’s operating system lacks this feature altogether. Unfortunately, my biggest annoyance with this tool is that it isn’t enabled by default.

This doesn’t sound like a big problem, as you only need to turn on notification history once on your phone. However, I often only remember to enable it on a new device when I’ve accidentally dismissed a notification in the first place. And guess what? The feature only logs alerts after you turn it on for the first time. That means you can’t view any dismissed alerts prior to enabling notification history. So, the one time when I most need access to the notification history is occasionally the time that I can’t use it.

I’d therefore love it if Google enabled this feature by default on all Android devices. That way, you can be assured that you can always view past notifications. Then again, I totally understand if some Android phone users don’t want this option to be on by default. After all, this is a log of sensitive information. So privacy-conscious users might not want their phone readily hoovering up this info.

A good middle-ground would be for Android phones to display a prompt in the notification shade after first booting up, asking whether you want to enable notification history. This would be a more sensible approach to the feature, reminding users about it without making a decision for them.

Google could even ask users during device setup whether they wanted to enable notification history. Heck, I’d appreciate it if Android phones in general asked users more questions during the setup process. I’d specifically like to see more OEMs follow Samsung and ask users whether they prefer a split or unified notification shade. Meanwhile, colleague Rita El Khoury suggested questions around notification snoozing, display resolution, refresh rate, and battery optimizations.

Of course, these questions could quickly make for a messy setup process. But colleague Andy Walker suggests that Android OEMs could even ask people whether they were novices or power users. Choose the former, and you’ve got a simplified setup process. Pick the latter, and you’ve got all the toggles and settings you could want from the first boot to help you tailor your experience.

Maybe asking for a more in-depth setup process is a bridge too far. But at the bare minimum, I’d love to see notification history enabled by default on a new Android phone, or a toggle appearing during device setup to remind me to do it. So here’s hoping Google is listening.