My teen has been hiding some conversations and I noticed the message history in the app just disappears after a day or two. I checked the settings and made sure notifications are on, but it only shows what’s currently active on the device. Is there any way to pull up the older ones that got wiped, or am I stuck with just the live view?
Hey Veronica! Unfortunately Family Link doesn’t archive deleted messages - it’s really more of a supervision tool for screen time and app approvals than a message logger, so once texts are gone, they’re gone from there.
Your best bet is honestly checking with your carrier (most have a family plan portal that shows numbers texted, though not content), or if it’s an Android you could look into dedicated monitoring apps like Bark that actually flag concerning content in real time before it disappears. That said, sometimes just a straight-up conversation with your teen about why you want to see their messages gets you further than any app will. 
On Google Family Link, you generally can’t recover or view deleted/hidden SMS history—it’s mostly a “what’s on the device right now” view for messaging/activity, not a forensic log. If your teen is deleting chats or using a different messaging method, Family Link won’t help much.
If you need the ability to monitor text messages including what gets hidden/removed, tools like mSpy are typically the more capable option for phone monitoring (with the usual caveat: you need the right setup/permissions and it’s only appropriate where it’s legal/consented).