Never lose a reel again – Instagram adds Watch History feature

New Delhi: Instagram has introduced a new feature known as ‘Watch History’ which allows users to view the already watched Reels with ease. The update is meant to address one of the most common frustrations of losing focus on a video because of distractions, phone calls, or simply having to close the app. The feature helps to make the process of rediscovering videos easy and makes Instagram more like a Tik Tok short-video experience.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the update and emphasised that now users can view their Watch History on their profile. Mosseri said, "You can see all the Reels you have watched in the Watch History, which appears in the Profile and under the Settings, then Your Activity.”

Watch History allows the user to sort the previously viewed Reels by date, past week or month, or by a custom date range. There is also an option of deleting a certain video in the history of the users. The feature is more flexible than the TikTok version, giving the content a view of either chronological or reverse chronological order or being filtered by the creator.

The new feature follows constant user complaints of not having a hassle-free way of recovering lost Reels. In the past, customers were forced to use tedious solutions such as downloading their information and then searching it manually. Watch History now simplifies this process and lets users easily find and reread their content of choice.

This is the first of several plans that Meta has made to improve Instagram Reels by incorporating TikTok-like features. Recent has been the ability of creators to connect multiple Reels in a series and Picture-in-Picture. Watch History is making Instagram look more like its competitor by enhancing Instagram with the short-video experience.