The first iPhone was made in 2007, and today, a smartphone is the one thing that most of us have. In 2022, half of Americans said they can’t imagine their lives without their smartphones, and 83% of adults keep their smartphones near them almost all the time during waking hours.
But it’s not just our own smartphones we love: we’re no strangers to snooping through other people’s phones, too. When it comes to our partners, 19% of Americans admit they’ve gone through their SO’s phone without permission.
What’s on their phone can say a lot about a person and can even be a gateway to their innermost world. Sometimes, we take a peek and see something that surprises us – both in good and bad ways.
Recently, people shared the wildest and most wholesome things they’ve seen on someone else’s phone when netizen @simplysamythings asked: “What’s something you saw on someone’s phone… that changed how you see them forever?”
#1
My husband has a notes tab with any and everything I ever mentioned I liked or wanted. I’m talking links to the items, prices, places we were at, specific scents, colors, flavors, my coffee order 😭
#2
The old-school version of this…dad has my baby photo still in his wallet. He’s 79 and I’m 54 ❤️
#3
For the longest time, I thought my husband has never asked to take a picture of me/me with kids, etc. I have to ask him. 2 months ago I was looking for a photo in his phone. I found HUNDREDS of me that he has been taking forever without me knowing. Me in my happiest moments. Me with our babies. 15 years and this felt like our first date.
When it comes to your romantic partner, experts generally don’t recommend snooping through their phone. They say that however you want to look at it, it’s still a breach of trust. If you feel the urge to go through your partner’s phone, it probably means one of these three things:
You don’t trust them. A partner might not have anything to hide but still not want to give you their phone because that just feels a bit icky. “Curiosity is one thing but actively going through someone’s phone is an exercise of mistrust,” licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Tirrell DeGannes explains.
#4
[After loss of my fiancé], I was going through his phone and he had so many pictures of me just in our daily life. I had no idea he ever took those, I could see me through his lens…it deeply changed me. I miss him so much.
#5
I had a friend who was texting her [late brother] for 2 years straight after. Just chatting without a response. It made me realize how much she was truly grieving.
#6
My dad and step mom’s texts during my high school graduation about how embarrassed they were I didn’t graduate with honors and comparing me to other students…. Grabbed my diploma and dipped. no contact with them 7 years later✌🏻
You feel insecure. People with self-esteem issues might think they don’t deserve their partner or keep thinking they’re not enough, so, their partner is looking to fulfill their needs somewhere else. It may come down to past experiences. “The person checking the other’s phone has some reason to feel insecurity in the relationship, whether it be a history of being cheated on, lied to, or being told in the past that they’d have to be vigilant in order to prevent themselves from the inevitability of being cheated on,” Dr. DeGannes says.
#7
My oldest daughter screenshot a group text b/w my wife and 3 daughters talking about me. My wife was planning a random special dinner for me and she was explaining how much I do for this family and how much she relies on me and what I mean to her. After 31 years of marriage, I didn’t think I could love her more…I was wrong.
#8
I saved all the photos from [my late mother’s] phone. She had saved SO MANY positive quotes and had taken sweet selfies of herself through her cancer treatments. The week before she left a note in her notes app for me knowing I’d find it telling me how special I was.
#9
My bf has a reminder on his phone set for everyday to do Duolingo and learn Vietnamese for me.
You suspect cheating. If an individual is having doubts about their partner’s fidelity, the couple needs to have an open conversation. If you already have reason to believe they’re cheating and even have evidence, confront them with it. But insisting on invading your partner’s privacy by snooping through their phone without anything other than a hunch might veer on the side of paranoia.
#10
My sister’s text saying “she’s so selfish couldn’t even make it to mom’s funeral” uhm I had just given birth & was in the ICU fighting for my life & almost joined our mom😑but I’m selfish.
#11
Got[my late dad’s] phone and he had a message typed out to me he never sent, it said “Woke up thinking about you. I love you.”
#12
And hour after I gave birth, a notification came up on his phone from a random number. I clicked on it and it pulled up multiple flirty messages, including I love you. He had been texting this girl the entire time I was in labor… yeah I’ll never forget that.
In 2013, Clean Master asked Americans about what things they were hiding on their phones. 52% of the respondents said they would be embarrassed if friends or family could see the stuff on their phones. The thing most Americans don’t want others to see on their phones is their bank account information. But they also don’t want others going through their texts written (24%), texts received (23%), websites visited (15%), and, of course, adult content (10%).
#13
My dad’s background on his phone is a picture of me & my sister. My sister is biological his & I’m not biologically his but he raised me💞
#14
I found out [my late dad] saved EVERY photo of me and my kids. When he said we were his world he really meant it.
#15
We checked [my late grandma’s] phone and there was an unsent text to me that said “bye Makayla love you my gorgeous young lady.”
How about you, Pandas? Have you ever seen something on a friend or partner’s phone and gotten the biggest ick possible? Share your experiences with us in the comments! Also, if you would like to see some funny interactions between people after they’ve texted the wrong number, check out the funniest posts right here!
#16
My husband has a reminder every day for 8:00pm that says “do something nice for Jane” I occasionally see it go off and it reminds me I married the man of my dreams 🥺
#17
Ex husband talking to his best friend about how he couldn’t wait to go to a hooters like establishment to see a decent body. I’d just given birth to this 3rd child. 🙃
#18
All [my late dad’s] passwords were of my brother, my mom or me. Like “bestdayoflife030981”.
#19
My husband.s boss was sitting in front of me and she was texting her daughter’s boyfriend “I love you so much handsome baby” while her daughter was sitting across the table from her WITH THE GUY AND HE WAS LOOKING DOWN, SMILING AT HIS PHONE.
#20
I saw [my late dad] spent every Tuesday sending encouraging messages to people on FB. “I always knew you would be a big success.” And he had 3 favorites in his contacts – my siblings and me.
#21
A video of my ex husband, his best friend, and best friends wife “together” on a day I was at home with our one week old baby.
#22
I went through my moms phone & my sister went through my dads phone & we found out they were both cheating on each other after 25 years together 🤦🏼♀️They divorced after.
#23
My grandpa was texting my grandma “I miss you Mima” 🥺🥺🥺🥺 he was visiting me and my grandma has dementia and stayed with my aunty for the weekend, and he reminds her daily so she doesn’t forget him.
#24
Saw my mom liking and posting troll comments in support of ICE on a private FB group that she must have forgot that she added me to… I’m Mexican & married into a Mexican family as well.
#25
My boyfriend bought an engagement ring. It wasn’t for me.
#26
A girl I was friends with was getting anonymously bullied on tumblr and i felt so bad for her, but i ended up seeing her send herself the anon hateful messages during a movie.
#27
Saw his to do list ✅: buy her flowers , go for a walk to a nearby lake , dinner at her fav restaurant, remind her she means everything to me …
#28
Texted his blocked ex for 982 days in a row to see if he was unblocked.
#29
Searched my name in their messages expecting to find cute stuff said about me instead I found out he hooked up with another girl on my birthday because I was sick with a fever.
#30
Was playing games on my adoptive moms phone and my adoptive dad texted her and asked if they could “reconsider this adoption thing.”
#31
My ex boyfriend of two years had a list of girls he had been with in his notes app. I was on it, which is bad enough (am I not your literal girlfriend?) but I wasn’t the last name put on that list. Lmfao. Glad he’s out of my life!
#32
A positive one: my bf set a widget to be a slideshow of pics of me and makes me send every selfie I take so their Lock Screen and Home Screen can be updated regularly😭🥰
#33
His name popping up on a 16 year old girls phones Snapchat that we worked with. He’s 25.
#34
My stepmom told my dad I was a devil spawn bc she would lie to him about “behaviors” so she got his attention and I didn’t. I was 10. I never spoke, made noise in the house, was afraid to even eat, and complied with every command because I was scared to get in trouble. I didn’t deserve that and it’ll forever hurt me deeply.
#35
We were watching his Spotify wrapped together and his most listened podcast was Joe Rogan… he said he listened to it to fall asleep but I didn’t believe him.
#36
My dads only locations on his weather app were the places my siblings and I lived.
#37
My name in his phone is amore❤️and his lock screen is the worst picture of me known to man.
#38
Figuring out my ex has a secret calculator app that hid girls’ [revealing pictures].
#39
My entire perspective of someone changes when I see their Lock Screen set to a selfie of themselves.
#40
Him cheating on me while I was pregnant.
#41
My ex texting an old fling that he wanted to take our kid away from me so she could be their mom.
#42
The elderly receptionist at the assisted living center I worked at had Edward Cullen as her Lock Screen. Later saw her Facebook in my recommended and he was a picture of her and him photoshopped.
#43
Saw my dad texting my childhood best friend’s mom and was very obviously cheating on my mom with her.
#44
The guy I was exclusively dating wished Carrie June a happy Valentine’s Day while doing nothing for me for Valentine’s Day 😭😭😂😂 I was actually more embarrassed for him.
#45
My husband is man of few words and after we got on stage with Coldplay he messaged them on Instagram thanking them and saying the most kindest things about how much he loves me and how it took him back to the best day of his life 🥹🥰
#46
I was spilling my heart out and going through postpartum and he was sending screenshots of my texts to another girl laughing with her.. we were engaged.
#47
Seeing my husbands searches as how to be a better man and a better husband 🥺
#48
Them saying “good morning beautiful” to a number they thought was Sydney Sweeney’s for a year and a half.
#49
My former boss at Panera had my dad as her background, my parents were still married.
#50
10 years worth of illicit photos from ex girlfriends. We had been together 6 years. He made sure he transferred them every time he got a new phone.
#51
One of my guy friends in high school had a picture of a girl’s personal photo that had been leaked. i asked why he had it. “just because” was his answer. stopped talking to him that day.
#52
Hacked his Facebook and he was real time messaging with the girl he told me not to worry about. Told her straight up in those messages he didn’t ever love me as I’m watching it he sent in real time. That was my first boyfriend. Haven’t had a great time since.
#53
My ex husband (while we were married) had a secret dating profile and listed his status as Widowed 💀
#54
My ex being in a gay republicans group on Facebook.
#55
Him sending an Instagram model money through cash app but he didn’t give me a dime without begging for it 😭
#56
Grindr on my father in laws phone.. mind you he’s married to my mother in law.. 🙃😃
#57
Was at a St Louis Cardinals game last week and an older man was in front of us and he made a Facebook post about how his wife made him go to a cardinals game in the blistering heat and talking smack about not wanting to be there. He was by himself the entire time, no wife in sight, and cheered louder than anyone. Haven’t stopped thinking about it lol
#58
On my birthday my friend was typing a list of all the things he hated about me and all the ‘annoying’ things I was doing coz he planned to show it to me as my ‘birthday present.’
#59
Tinder on my dads phone (he’s with his second wife after my mum divorced him bc he cheated).
#60
His friends trying to get him to leave me bc I’m liberal 😍
#61
I had a friend who would make me Venmo her a dollar. She opened her bank account app in front of me and had 15k in it. I had maybe 500 in my name at the time and never asked her to pay me back for anything.
#62
Dating apps on peoples phones when they’re in a committed relationship. idc if they’re “old and signed out of” delete them then….
#63
My ex had a whole folder with over 2k photos of girls he found attractive, none of them looked like me. then he “couldn’t understand why” I was insecure and hated how I looked.
#64
Saw my ex would slide up on Sommer Ray’s stories with the 🔥 emoji. Never gotten the ick so fast.
#65
My “dad” had me saved as “bb” ( there’s no b in my name) he said it stood for “baby” (I’m the youngest) comes to find out it stood for biggest burden. he also said if he had it saved as my name he’d forget i was his daughter and delete the #🙂 ( i was 11 ) idk why he doesn’t like me btw.
#66
My husband (bf) at the time gave me a promise ring at 18. I saw texts of my brother saying to my other brother “it will never last.” 1 marriage, 2 kids, 12 years later it did. But I’ll never forget that.
#67
Went through his email. He was signed up to a bunch of weird things ifykw….. he had so many kinks I never knew about. Seeing him pay for things like that made me lose hope. He really is just a man.
#68
“You are dragging her along like she’s a dog on a leash” – my exes teammate referencing me!
#69
My bf of 5 years texting his best friend saying he’s gonna take me out for dinner to break up because he just “wasn’t in it for the cause anymore.”
#70
Went thru an old best friend’s phone (she would go thru mine too) + found a hidden calculator app, first album was my face & my ig posts. salon pictures from business pages online i never shared, a pic of my ball makeup that was done privately by my cousin, even old fb photos from my family’s ig & fb acc’s. 🥴🥴
#71
My ex having Grindr in his App Store search history.
#72
My ex caught me googling how old I was.
#73
My sister telling my mom I was “worthless” and “the least helpful person in the family” all bc I said “No” to checking on her dog bc it was out of the way & I had work… her in laws literally lived 4 minutes down the road.
#74
A text string with our friend group that I was not included on.
#75
My ex was texting 6 other females and asking all of them for money.
#76
Discovered my husband, Blue $30,000 and had an emotional affair with the lady in Australia that he gamed with. Twenty five years down the drain.
#77
He was showing me something on his phone and getting multiple Bumble notifications 🥲
#78
An ex friend used to have her phone font in all comic sans.
#79
My moms cat. And no not the animal. I’m forever traumatized.
#80
My name on their Google search and they were my co worker lmao
#81
5 1/2 years together, lived together, moved 2000+ miles away from our friends and family… he had the text verification code for hinge text message. He deleted the app but forgot to delete the text verification code.
#82
As this man gave me literally nothing he was literally boasting and complementing/fan girling over riley reid and dming her telling her how beautiful she is and she deserves the world😮💨😭
#83
Saw texts between my ex and this girl we knew (whom he claimed he hated) talking about how much he loved hooking up with her whenever they got drunk together. We basically lived together and had been together for almost 6 years.
#84
My ex bestie started texting the guy I told her I thought was super cute and I was interested in, 3 days later she was texting him after never talking to him in her life 🥰
#85
I once looked through my mom and dad’s messages to see if they talked about me and they did.. they said “shes just so much, i cant keep doing this with her” never picked up my moms phone AGAIN.
#86
I had a boyfriend. I woke up in the morning next to him. I was getting ready to leave cause I had work soon. Idk why . But something told me to check his phone. It was right there next to mine. But face down. I turn it face up and see a good morning text from ‘baby’ but … I don’t recall texting him. So I text him again, so I thought. The same text “good morning”. A text from ‘Renee’ pops up on his phone …….. he still tries to talk to me and reconnect. I can’t.
#87
The same day we were hanging out and spent the night together, at 2am he fell asleep on the thread with his ex, he said he misses her and he wishes he was with her rn, while he was asleep in my bed.
#88
My family fat shaming me 💜
#89
My man takes pictures of me sleepin horrible pictures of me sleeping. I’m legit creeped out by it.
#90
Found out my bsf used me as gossip when I was at my lowest.
#91
Saw his search history “how to breakup with someone.”
#92
My ex dmed Selena Gomez happy bday every year.
#93
After I found out I was pregnant, my bf texted his ex to tell her and ask her opinion on baby names. Changed my entire opinion of him.
#94
My husband chatting away trying to impress a girl on IG on Valentine’s Day by asking her where she got her perfume so he could get me one, he got me nothing…
#95
When I looked over their shoulder and saw Yubo downloaded.
#96
idk about yall but my friends Jimmy John’s app was in his “finance” folder and that really did something to me spiritually.
#97
One million blonde bitmoji notifs (i am brunette).