Apple releases new iOS 16.2 beta 4 that makes seeing older notifications easier

Apple released its latest iOS public beta this week, and it has one convenient new feature that could help reduce your scrolling — at least by one swipe.

As pointed out by MacRumors, users who have installed iOS 16.2 beta 4 on their iPhones now only need to swipe upward once within Notification Center to see both their latest and older notifications.

In iOS 15, users were accustomed to seeing all notifications, new and old, in the pull-down Notification Center without extra effort. When iOS 16 rolled out this year, though, not only did users need to learn the new collapsed stack view for the Lock Screen, but the Notification Center also behaved similarly.

It doesn’t sound like a groundbreaking change, but it’s possible to miss something unless you think to swipe up one more time within Notification Center.

Personally, I’ve definitely missed some notifications on my iPhone that may have first popped up on my Apple Watch, but either my hoodie sleeve covered them or I just didn’t have enough attention span to really notice them. And if the Apple Watch thinks I saw it, then it would no longer be a new notification on both the iPhone’s Lock Screen and Notification Center.

It’s worth noting that the Lock Screen behavior is still the same, which could arguably use this change more than just Notification Center. And as with all changes that come in beta releases, this doesn’t necessarily mean this feature will remain in place when the final version of iOS 16.2 comes out.

It’s still a welcome adjustment that joins other slight changes from the previous iOS 16.2 public beta release. Last month’s beta 3 release gave iPhone 14 Pro owners more control over the always-on Lock Screen, so they can hide the wallpaper and leave behind a clean black screen with just the time and widgets — similar what many Android devices have been doing for a long time.