Instagram is introducing a new feature that allows users to review videos they’ve watched within the past month, addressing a longstanding issue for content discovery and sharing.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the platform now offers a “Watch History” feature for Reels, enabling users to locate previously viewed content without remembering account names or specific details. The tool maintains a record of all Reels watched over the previous 30 days.

Users access the feature through their profile page by navigating to “Settings > Your Activity > Watch History.” The system supports sorting options from oldest to newest or by specific content creators, allowing for targeted content retrieval.

“You can sort it from oldest to newest, or newest to oldest, you can go to a specific date or date range, and you can even filter it down to a specific person or account that posted that Reel,” Mosseri explained in his announcement.

This development follows Instagram’s recent redesign that prioritizes messaging and Reels in the navigation bar, reflecting shifting user behavior. The platform increasingly focuses on short-form video consumption and social sharing rather than its original photo-sharing roots.

Instagram continues to introduce features that support content sharing between users, including the ability to view videos friends have liked and a “Blend” function in direct messages that allows algorithm sharing between contacts.

The Competition

Instagram’s implementation mirrors a similar feature already available on TikTok, though TikTok’s history function extends back six months rather than Instagram’s 30-day limit. Meta confirmed to Business Insider that despite a user interface suggesting otherwise, the feature is limited to 30 days with bug fixes in progress.

The watch history feature reveals what was already happening behind the scenes: the platform tracks user viewing habits to power its recommendation algorithms and advertising systems. Users now gain transparency and utility from this data collection.

The update rolls out in the latest version of the Instagram application across all supported platforms, representing what Social Media Today describes as a “relatively small, but valuable addition” to the app’s functionality.

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