One of the best things to happen to my family is shared notes. But, something that has always been an issue is not knowing what or who changed something on a shared note. And while this may be somewhat of a niche issue, if you’re someone who stays organized and productive by using the Notes app and the shared notes feature, this might be really useful for you as well.

Why You’ll Love This Tip

See who made changes to your shared notes.
Check what changes have been made recently to your shared notes.

View History Notes App When Collaborating with Others

System Requirements

This tip was performed on an iPhone 17 Pro Max running iOS 26.5. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

Being able to collaborate on shared notes in the Notes app on the iPhone is an amazing tool for productivity, but working on notes with other people can sometimes get confusing. For more tips like this, don't forget to check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter. There are two distinct ways to see a shared note's edit history that are equally informative and I will show you both of them:

The first method you can use to track the activity of a shared note is a feature called Show All Activity. It allows you to see the time and date of each edit, as well as who made it.

Open the Notes app.
Open a shared note.
Tap the Add People icon at the top of the note.
Then, tap Show All Activity.
Now, you will be able to view changes made by other collaborators at the bottom of the screen. Swipe up to see more details.

The Activity view is separate from the text itself, so you won’t be able to see the text at the same time, but you can get a better sense of activity over time. For more iPhone Notes app secrets, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter. If you’ve never used shared notes, check out our guide for how to share a note on iPhone.

View Shared Note History with Highlights

The second method to track the activity on a shared note is called Highlights, and this will allow you to see edits and when they occurred directly next to the text itself.

To see Highlights, simply swipe from left to right while viewing the Note.
You can also access Highlights by tapping the Add People icon at the top of the note.
Then tap Show Highlights.
You will see more detailed descriptions of the edits made under the name of who edited, or by tapping on it if there are many more complex edits.
Swiping left or going back to the Add People button will turn Highlights back off again.

So, can you see edit history on notes? Yes! And it is easier than you'd expect. Now you know how to look at Notes history (iPhone & iPad have the same steps) and you'll be able to see who made what changes.