Buried within iOS 26 is a hidden history that lets you see every call you've ever exchanged with a specific contact, potentially going back years. You might not know it, but you can access this detailed call history on your iPhone in seconds.

ios 26 call history
Viewing the new extended history screen can come in handy when you need to recall when you last spoke with someone. It's also pretty useful when you want to verify a call duration for whatever reason. Here's how to get there.

Access Extended Call History

  1. Open the Phone app on your iPhone.
  2. In the Unified view, find the contact in the "Recents" section whose call history you want to view.
  3. Tap the contact's name (if you're using the Classic interface, tap the circled "i" icon next to their name.
  4. Scroll down and tap Call History.

call history phone app ios

You'll now see a complete chronological record of every incoming, outgoing, and missed call with that contact, including the date, time, and duration of each conversation. This view can stretch back in time for months or years, depending on how long you've been in touch and how much call history data is stored on your phone.

Top Rated Comments

CouldBeWorse Avatar
18 weeks ago

You don’t need, but government need
The government can already get this from your cell carrier. There’s no need for them to have Apple add call history to iPhones.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pward Avatar
18 weeks ago
Call history seems to be limited to the last 2.5 years; checked a few long-term contacts and there's no history prior to April 2023.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rbbloom99 Avatar
18 weeks ago
Now we can see what the NSA has been seeing for years :)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NightFox Avatar
18 weeks ago
To the tin-foil hatters, if this was introduced for government/law enforcement purposes or whatever, why do you think Apple would have built a consumer-focussed UX around it? If the data's on the phone and Apple want to give anyone access to it, they ain't going to go through the iOS interface. If the police want to know your call history, they don't just go into Phone>Recent and leave it at that.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
londonlaw Avatar
18 weeks ago
If you need to go back into your extended call history, but the contact does not appear in your recent call log, how do you do this? I'm using iOS26. THanks
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Steve Without-A-Job Avatar
18 weeks ago
How great it is... I can finally see how many times in total I used to phone my ex ....
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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