diff --git a/Tusker/Views/Notifications/ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell.swift b/Tusker/Views/Notifications/ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell.swift
index b819b360..04dd06a9 100644
--- a/Tusker/Views/Notifications/ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell.swift
+++ b/Tusker/Views/Notifications/ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell.swift
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ class ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
         
         isGrayscale = Preferences.shared.grayscaleImages
         
+        updateTimestamp()
+        let timestampLabelSize = timestampLabel.sizeThatFits(CGSize(width: .greatestFiniteMagnitude, height: timestampLabel.bounds.height))
+        
         let people = group.notifications.compactMap { mastodonController.persistentContainer.account(for: $0.account.id) }
         
         actionAvatarStackView.arrangedSubviews.forEach { $0.removeFromSuperview() }
@@ -90,7 +93,8 @@ class ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
             // don't add more avatars if they would overflow or squeeze the timestamp label
             let avatarViewsWidth = 30 * CGFloat(imageViews.count)
             let avatarMarginsWidth = 4 * CGFloat(max(0, imageViews.count - 1))
-            let maxAvatarStackWidth = verticalStackView.bounds.width - timestampLabel.bounds.width - 8
+            // todo: when the cell is first created, verticalStackView.bounds.width is not correct
+            let maxAvatarStackWidth = verticalStackView.bounds.width - timestampLabelSize.width - 8
             let remainingWidth = maxAvatarStackWidth - avatarViewsWidth - avatarMarginsWidth
             if remainingWidth < 34 {
                 break
@@ -102,7 +106,6 @@ class ActionNotificationGroupTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
             await updateGrayscaleableUI()
         }
 
-        updateTimestamp()
         actionLabel.setEmojis(pairs: people.map { ($0.displayOrUserName, $0.emojis) }, identifier: group.id)
         
         let doc = try! SwiftSoup.parse(status.content)