iOS 10 Adds Recent Label Next To iPhone Contact Number
Last updated on July 8th, 2020 at 06:41 pm
Posted in TILs by Patricia on December 5, 2016No, the tag isn’t created to flag a recently added contact, but to highlight which number a friend used to contact you most recently!
For example, if you have both home, work, mobile and any other phone number of a friend, you can use the Recent label to know which number your contact used lately, when attempting to call you. This helps you to pick the proper number when calling him / her back or sending a text message.
Naturally, you’ll use the number tagged as Recent in order to make sure that you reach your contact on the device that her or she currently uses.
These labels are automatically added by iOS to your contacts, whenever you receive a call from a specific contact. Tags are created no matter if you pickup the call or decline it.
iPhone “Recent” Label Facts
– the tag is added to a contact no matter if you have saved a single phone number or multiple ones on file. That’s because you can also confuse a phone number with FaceTime email ID.
– the Recent label is created and displayed next to a contact’s number both if you receive, or dial a call from or to the specific friend.
– the new label is active as long as the entry remains in your Recents Call History
‘Recent’ Label Display Duration
The iOS Call History saves the last 1000 dialed or missed calls but only displays the last 100. This means that the iPhone can list up to a week of call history for the average user, but could go as short as 24 hours in case of hyperactive callers.
If you’re wondering when the ‘Recent’ label expires and stops showing up, it depends on how much you use your iPhone. If you average 10 dialed or missed calls per day, the ‘Recent’ label will show up for 10 days.
How To Delete The ‘Recent’ Label
If the ‘Recent’ label can cause problems and you don’t want to wait until it expires and disappears you can delete the phone call in question from your iPhone Call History.
1. Open the Phone app.
2. Tap the Recents tab, available in the bottom menu.
3. Tap Edit, in the top-right corner of the screen.
4. Hit the red ‘-‘ icon next to the entry’s name.
Do you find the ‘Recent’ label of the Contact app useful? Let us know in the comments section available below.
Related: Do you know that you can list iPhone contacts based on creation date?
Will ‘recent’ still show up by my bfs ex wife’s on his block list if he hasn’t unblocked or contact her? Or does it mean its recently added to her back to block list.
Jadis, ‘Recent’ doesn’t refer to when a contact was added to the Contacts list. It means that a call was dialed or received from that number, recently.
that is not true. I tested this out because I could not understand how this worked and I made up a random number and blocked it and it still says recent
Thanks for the clarification.
RECENT TAG How long is “recent’? Meaning, how long ago did the person try to contact you? Does it go away after a certain period of time? Mine always says recent. Is that recently within a few days or months?
Thanks
Angela, ‘Recent’ means that you recently called or have been called from that certain number. It lasts for an average of 7 days. To be more specific, it last for as long as your interaction is still saved in the iPhone’s Call History. The 100 latest calls or missed calls are saved. This means that you need 100 new calls or missed calls to be registered, before the ‘Recent’ label expires.
How long does recent last? I’ve blocked a contact a week ago and the recent still remains.
Nicole thanks for commenting. It lasts until your interaction with that contact isn’t available in your Call History anymore. That’s when you have 100 other calls or missed calls registered, after the interaction in question. Hope this helps.
Hello! If you delete the calls from your Call History, will the recent tag still appear in the contact?
Hi Ashley. If you delete the specific entry from your Call History the ‘Recent’ label should disappear.
I just carried out the following experiment to see why the “recent” label appears. I added a number to my contacts. I have never received a message from this number, nor have I called or been called from this number, so there is absolutely no history of interaction with this number. However, after adding this number and blocking it, the “recent” label appears when I go to Setting/phone/ blocked callers. This means that the label didn’t appear because I called the number recently or because I got a call from this number. So, should I think that it appeared because it’s a recent addition to my blocked contacts?
Hi Valerie. Thanks a lot for sharing your case study and for adding valuable info to this topic.
I assume that the ‘Recent’ label was added because you recently interacted with the number. Have you added the number to an existing contact or you created a brand new contact?
If you added it to an existing contact as an additional number, it makes sense for the ‘Recent’ label to appear to signal that it was the number that you most recently used when referring to that contact. However, if this is a brand new entry, I admit that the situation is confusing.
I did this by adding a brand-new contact and made up a random number and it still says recent. it’s been a month or longer and still says recent. I’m thinking it means that is the most recent number for that contact but doesn’t have any significance with calling/texting.
Thanks for the feedback Nicole. We appreciate your info.
hi my bf has had a number blocked for over 6 months. i checked to see if the number was still blocked and it has the “recent” beside it. the number is still blocked and he hasn’t called the number. do you know why this is?
This could be a glitch. But in the same time he could have unblocked the number, call it, delete the call from the Phone history and block the number back. Not sure if this helps though.
I figured out that every number I recently blocked that was saved as a persons name originally (ex: Sam) says “recent” next to it. I have not corresponded with any of those contacts in months. However, all the numbers (not originally saved as a contact) so NOT say “recent”. Even the more recent ones I’ve blocked. Some of my blocked (previous contacts) date back YEARS and say “recent”
Thanks for the feedback. Could the ‘Recent’ label be triggered by an edit that you make to a contact? For example, blocking it or adding a new field?
I just tested the theory, I put a random number in my phone as “test”. Blocked the number, which is made up, I never dialed nor received a call from it. When I checked under my blocked list, it comes up as “recent” next to the number.
Thanks for sharing. It means that the ‘Recent’ label is signaling that the number was recently added to your Contacts.
I figured out if I open a contact that doesn’t say recent on my blocked contact list then go back to my blocked list it will now have the recent label appear
Thanks for sharing.