History, Saved answers and Private Mode

What History, Saved and Private Mode do

History, Saved and Private Mode are three tools for managing what AskMed keeps on your screen. History lists your past conversations, newest first, each with when it was asked, its full answer and its sources, and a mark showing whether it was asked in Ask Anything or Research. Open any row to read the answer again, with every citation still linked. Saved is your list of bookmarked answers and references: tap Save answer under an answer worth keeping, and it appears in Saved until you remove the bookmark. Private Mode is a switch in Settings and on the History screen; while it is on, a Private label shows on the main screen and new questions are not saved to History. Clear History deletes your whole History list, including saved answers, after you confirm, because this can't be undone. In the web app, you can also delete a single conversation. These tools change what is kept in History, not how answers are written.

Where your history is stored

Where History is stored depends on the platform, as AskMed's privacy policy explains. In the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, History and Saved answers are kept on your device. On iPhone and iPad they are included in your iCloud or device backups, so they come back when you restore or move to a new phone; on Android they are not backed up. In the web app, your history and saved answers are stored on AskMed's servers with your account, so they are there when you sign in on another browser. History in the apps and history on the website are kept separately and do not merge. Private Mode keeps new questions out of History in the app or on the website, but questions asked in Private Mode are still sent to AskMed's servers to be answered and are recorded there like other questions. Clear History removes your History list but does not delete the copies on AskMed's servers; to have those deleted, contact support.

The full details are in the Privacy Policy under History, Saved Answers, and Private Mode.

When it helps

History, Saved and Private Mode help you build a personal reference instead of asking the same thing twice. A resident can save the answers they look up on every rotation, such as a sepsis pathway or the criteria for a diagnosis, and open them from Saved in seconds. A nurse can return to yesterday's answer on a procedure from History rather than searching again. A pharmacist can keep bookmarked answers on interactions that come up often at the counter. A medical student can save strong explanations while revising and review them before an exam, with the sources still linked for deeper reading. A researcher can keep the evidence summaries behind a project in one list. Private Mode helps when you share a device, demonstrate AskMed to a colleague or ask something you don't want listed on the History screen. On Android, Private Mode questions also never appear in the recent-questions home screen widget.

Get AskMed on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, on Google Play for Android, or use it on the web.

Limits

History and Private Mode have limits worth knowing before you rely on them. Private Mode only keeps questions out of History on your screen; the questions are still sent to AskMed's servers to be answered and recorded there, and follow-up context is still used, so Private Mode is not a way to make a question anonymous. Clear History works per app or per website account and does not erase AskMed's server copies, which you can ask support to delete. In the apps, History lives on the device: on Android it is not backed up, so it doesn't move to a new phone, and on iPhone and iPad it returns only from a backup. History does not sync between the apps and the web app, or between an iPhone and an iPad. Attachments are not kept with History, so a question that used a file needs the file reattached to be asked again. Never put details that identify a patient into a question unless you are allowed to.