Telegram keeps your chats in the app, on all your devices. A notification history keeps something else: a copy of what your phone showed you at the time, even if the message is later edited or a channel post is hard to find again. This guide explains what that copy contains and where its limits are.
The short answer
A Telegram notification history keeps the text of messages that arrived as notifications on your phone. With Saksi, direct chats get proven edits (Message edited, earlier version kept) and possible deletions, while groups and channels show changes as Updated.
- What it cannot do: show messages that never appeared as a notification, open Telegram's own storage, or guess at deletions in groups and channels.
What a Telegram notification contains
When a message arrives and Telegram posts a notification, Android receives:
- The sender's name, or the group or channel name.
- The message text, often with the last few messages from the same chat.
- For photos, videos, voice messages and files, usually a caption or a short description. The file itself is often not included in a form other apps can read.
Telegram does not post a notification in some situations, and then no notification history has anything to keep:
- The chat is open on your screen.
- The chat, group or channel is muted.
- Telegram notifications are off in Android's settings or in Telegram's own settings.
- Message previews are switched off in Telegram's notification settings. The notification then says that a message arrived, without its text.
Option 1: Android's built‑in notification history
On Android 11 and later, the Notification history setting keeps Telegram notifications for about 24 hours, starting when you turn it on. It is a simple list with no labels for edits or deletions. The Android notification history guide shows where to find it.
Option 2: A local history with Saksi
Saksi saves Telegram notifications from chats, groups and channels into a private history on your phone. What it can tell you depends on the type of conversation.
Direct chats
In one to one chats, Saksi can show:
- New: the first time Saksi saw this message.
- Message edited: Telegram updated the notification, and the sender, the time and the message all match, so Saksi treats it as a proven edit and keeps the earlier version. Tap See what changed to compare.
- Caption edited: a proven edit to the text on a photo or video.
- Possible deletion (unconfirmed): the message is no longer in the notification. This often means it was deleted, but it is not confirmed.
Telegram does not show a deletion notice in its notifications, so for Telegram Saksi never uses the confirmed Deleted label. Possible deletion is as far as it goes, and it is always labelled as uncertain.
Saksi is careful about when it calls something a possible deletion. It does not raise one right after you dismissed the notification yourself, or when Telegram rebuilds its notifications after a reconnect.
Groups and channels
Groups and channels behave differently. Telegram constantly swaps older posts out of a busy channel's notification to make room for new ones. If Saksi treated every post that left the notification as a possible deletion, you would get a stream of false alarms.
So in groups and channels:
- New messages and posts are saved as usual.
- A changed post is shown as Updated, which means the notification changed but Saksi cannot prove it was an edit. There are no edit alerts for groups and channels.
- Saksi does not mark possible deletions and does not send deletion alerts.
This is a deliberate choice: Saksi tells you what it saw, and says when it is not sure.
Photos, videos and files
Saksi saves a copy of a photo or file only when Android gives it access. Sometimes a Telegram notification includes a preview picture Saksi can keep, but often only the file name or type is available, and Saksi says so. The caption is text, so it is kept even when the photo is not.
In the Media tab each item shows its state, such as Saved on this device or Notification reference · no saved file. If you need a file Saksi could not save, use Import a file in the Media tab. Imported files are kept on your phone and are not linked to a conversation. Files over 20 MB are not saved.
How to set up Saksi for Telegram
Saksi is coming to Google Play and needs Android 8.0 or later.
- Open Saksi and tap Open Notification Access, then turn Saksi on in the Android list.
- In Telegram, check that notifications and message previews are on for the chats and channels you want to keep.
- Telegram is saved by default. You can check it in Saksi under Settings, Capture & Apps, App Filter.
- In your phone's Settings, open Apps, Saksi, Battery, and choose Unrestricted.
To check that Saksi is receiving Telegram notifications, open Settings, Capture & Apps in Saksi. The capture status shows whether Saksi is connected and when it last saw WhatsApp or Telegram notifications.
Alerts
For Telegram direct chats, Saksi can alert you about proven edits and possible deletions. Alerts are normal Android notifications. Your notification and Do Not Disturb settings decide whether they pop up. Every alert is also kept in the Alerts inbox inside the app. You can turn each alert type on or off in Settings, Message alerts.
When Saksi stops saving Telegram notifications
If new Telegram messages stop appearing in Saksi, work through these steps:
- Open Settings, Capture & Apps in Saksi and check the capture status.
- Tap Fix setup and make sure Saksi is on in Notification Access.
- Check that Telegram is turned on in App Filter.
- Set Saksi's battery use to Unrestricted in your phone's settings.
- Make sure Telegram still shows notifications on this phone, and that the chat is not muted.
The docs page Saksi stopped saving has more help, and the Telegram page in the docs covers every Telegram setting Saksi uses.
Limits to keep in mind
- Saksi only saves notifications that arrive after you turn on Notification Access.
- It cannot save messages that never appear as a notification, or content Telegram hides from its notifications.
- It cannot open Telegram's own storage, and it is not a recovery tool.
- A possible deletion is not proof that the sender deleted a message.
- The free archive keeps 7 days. Older items are deleted automatically, about once a day, and cannot be restored.
Saksi works with the notifications Telegram shows on your phone. Saksi is not affiliated with Telegram.
Your history stays on your phone
Everything Saksi saves stays on your phone. There is no account, nothing is uploaded to Saksi servers, and a message leaves your phone only when you tap Share. See how Saksi handles each app on the supported apps page, read the WhatsApp notification history guide, or explore all features.