Instagram introduces watch history for reels – Here’s how to access your previously viewed clips

Scrolling through Reels can be a haphazard experience. You spot a clip you like, swipe up to open it, and that’s it, you’ve watched it, but there’s no indication of where you were in the app’s never-ending stream. Until now. Instagram has introduced a “Watch History” feature for its short-form video feed.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the update in a tweet. The feature shows you a list of Reels you’ve watched, making it easy to rewatch a clip you scrolled past but wanted to see again.

Here’s how to use it?

Tap on your profile icon to open your profile, then go to Settings → Your Activity → Watch History. You’ll find a scrollable list of Reels you’ve recently watched there.

The list can be sorted by date (newest first or reverse), filtered by specific dates, and even by the account that created the Reel.

As of now, the list only covers the last 30 days of watched Reels, which is a limitation.

Why should you care?

This is good news for anyone who gets annoyed scrolling aimlessly through the Reels carousel and missing something they wanted to see. If you’ve ever said to yourself “I know I saw that Reel, where is it?” – the Watch History feature is the answer. If you hadn’t liked, saved or shared the clip, it could be long gone in the feed shuffle.

By this standard, Instagram is also improving the product – the Reels feed is more navigable, more organised, and less ephemeral. While still driven by algorithmic curation, giving users better tools to navigate their own viewing history means that Instagram is helping users feel less like they are being mindlessly pulled through a content funnel.

It’s also a sign that Instagram is at least partly listening to short-form video competitors such as TikTok that have already offered similar “watch-history”-type functionality for some time now. Short-form video operators are increasingly realising that while “discovery” is important, “rediscovery” is also a big part of the viewing equation.

A few things to remember

The history being limited to only the past 30 days means if you’re looking for something you saw a few months ago, you’re out of luck. The list can also become pretty long pretty quickly if you watch a lot of Reels – potentially dozens a day. If you have a very long watch history, scrolling through a very long list is still a chore. Privacy-conscious users should also be aware that this history is visible in your own account; the feature does not appear to offer sharing options, and Instagram has not indicated that other people can see your history.

The feature is in the process of rolling out, so if you don’t see it right away, check back later. (Helpful hint: updating to the latest version of the app is always a good idea)

If you sometimes feel that you get lost in the ceaseless torrent of Reels and often miss something great, the new Watch History for Reels is a welcome and meaningful step to improve user agency. It may not address all your discovery concerns, but for many, it will be a balm to the anxiety of the algorithm: you will now have a record of what you’ve watched – and a way to rewatch it when you want to.