Instagram announced Friday that users can now view their previously watched Reels through a new “Watch History” feature, closing a long-standing gap with rival TikTok. The feature allows users to quickly locate videos they may have lost track of while scrolling through the app.
With Watch History, users can easily find videos they forgot to save — whether they accidentally closed the app, received a phone call, or were interrupted mid-scroll. To access the feature, users can go to Profile → Settings → Your Activity → Watch History, where they’ll see a complete list of Reels they’ve watched.
“Have you ever tried to get back to a reel that you’d seen on Instagram and you just can’t find it?” asked Instagram head Adam Mosseri in the announcement. “Well, there is a new feature that should help.”
Users can sort their Watch History by date, author, or chronological order and can remove individual Reels from the list if they prefer not to keep a record. The sorting options make Instagram’s Watch History slightly more flexible than TikTok’s version, which has been available for several years.
Instagram said the addition was highly requested by users who previously had to rely on complicated workarounds, such as downloading their account data to retrieve watch activity. The new in-app solution simplifies the process and aligns Reels more closely with TikTok’s viewing experience.
The update follows several recent Reels improvements, including the ability to link multiple Reels in a series and use Picture-in-Picture viewing, both features borrowed from TikTok. The changes reflect Meta’s ongoing strategy to make Instagram Reels a more competitive short-form video platform.
Featured image credits: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
For more stories like it, click the +Follow button at the top of this page to follow us.