NotiRewind

How to choose an app that keeps your Windows notification history

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Windows doesn't keep notifications for long, so to keep a history you install an app that saves them. Before you choose one, check five things: where it stores notifications, what it can do about notifications from before you installed it, what happens while it isn't running, how it handles browser notifications, and how you pay.

How these apps work

An app that saves notifications asks Windows for access to your notifications, then reads the ones currently in the notification center (Microsoft Learn). This way, a notification that has left the notification center can no longer be read. How long notifications stay there is covered in "Where is notification history in Windows 11?".

So for apps that work this way, two things are the same:

1. Does it store notifications on your PC or on a server?

Notifications contain message text, sign-in codes, delivery updates and more. Check the app's description or privacy policy to see whether it keeps them on your PC only or also sends them to a server.

2. Does it start when you sign in?

Notifications can't be saved while the app isn't running, so an app that starts when you sign in and keeps running in the tray works best. If your history shows when the app was stopped, you can tell where the gaps are.

3. Does it sort browser notifications by site?

Notifications from sites you allowed in Chrome or Edge arrive as Windows notifications (see "How to see and stop Chrome and Edge website notifications on Windows"). Whether the app files them all under "Chrome" or by site makes a big difference when you look for one later.

4. How you find and take out notifications

Can you search the text and filter by date or app? Can you export to CSV or back up your history? Can you choose how long notifications are kept? Pick what you need for how you'll use it.

5. How you pay, and whether you can try it

Is it a one-time purchase or a subscription? With a free trial, you can check that notifications from the apps you use most are saved before you pay. Notifications from apps that show their own pop-ups instead of using Windows notifications can't be saved this way.

How NotiRewind handles these

NotiRewind is a Microsoft Store app for Windows 10 (version 2004 or later) and Windows 11. On the five points above:

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