In 2021, TikTok surpassed 1 billion active monthly users, cementing its status as one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. With its endless stream of short videos, TikTok makes it easy to get lost scrolling through content for hours. This raises an important question – can your friends see exactly what you’re watching on TikTok and for how long?
What is TikTok Watch History?
TikTok’s watch history feature allows users to view a log of all the videos they have watched in the app. It shows the videos you’ve liked, commented on, shared, or just viewed in your feed or through searches. According to TikTok, the watch history can go back up to 60 days.
The watch history feature allows you to easily find and rewatch videos you’ve previously seen. It can be useful if you want to find a video to show someone else or if you forgot to like a video you enjoyed. You can also use it to see what types of videos TikTok’s algorithm has been recommending to you based on your interests.
TikTok has toggled the availability of the watch history feature on and off since first testing it in early 2022. Currently, the watch history option is available to some users in their profile settings but not all. TikTok has not provided details on whether or when it will fully roll out the feature.
Default TikTok Watch History Settings
TikTok keeps your watch history private by default. This means that the videos, profiles, and hashtags you view in the app are not visible to anyone else unless you actively choose to turn on watch history visibility.
According to TikTok’s support page, your TikTok watch history, including the posts you view, is off by default. TikTok’s privacy settings keep this information private and only accessible to you when you are logged into your account.
Likewise, your TikTok profile view history is private by default according to iOS, as noted on Quora. So the profiles you visit in the TikTok app will not show up as views to those users unless you change the default setting.
In summary, TikTok keeps your browsing history completely confidential unless you choose to make it public through your privacy settings. You have control over who can see your watch history.
Who Can See Your TikTok Watch History
By default, your TikTok watch history is private and can only be seen by you. According to sources, TikTok does not share watch history data with any other users or make it public in any way [1]. This means that your friends, followers, contacts, or strangers cannot see the videos you have watched.
TikTok stores watch history and likes locally on your device. This data is not linked to your account or shared with anyone else. The only person who can access your watch history is you by going to your profile and tapping on “Watch history” [2].
So in summary, your TikTok watch history remains private to you only. No one else on TikTok can see the videos you’ve watched unless you specifically show them.
How Friends Can See Your Likes
One way friends may be able to see what you’ve watched on TikTok is through your likes. When you like a video on TikTok, this is public by default and part of your profile. Friends who visit your profile can scroll through and see all of the videos you’ve liked.
Liking a video is an indication that you have watched it and enjoyed it enough to give it a like. So by looking at your liked videos, friends can get a sense of the types of videos you are watching and interests you may have. This doesn’t necessarily reveal your full watch history, but likes do provide a sample of videos you have seen.
According to TikTok’s newsroom article, liking videos had been set to public by default originally. However, in 2019 they added the ability to make your liked videos private.
So if you don’t want friends seeing which videos you have liked, you can change your TikTok settings to keep your likes private. We’ll cover how to do that later in this article.
Making Watch History More Private
While your watch history is private by default, there are additional steps you can take to keep your viewing activity even more private on TikTok:
Turn off “Allow others to view your video view history” in Settings. This prevents your views from showing up if someone clicks on a video you’ve liked or commented on.
Avoid liking, commenting, sharing, or duetting videos. Any engagement on a video allows the creator to see you viewed it.
Turn off “Allow others to see the comments you’ve liked” in Settings. Liked comments are visible to creators.
Use an alternate “Finsta” account not connected to your main profile to watch videos you want to keep private.
Regularly clear your watch and search history in the app. This removes the record of your viewing activity over time.
Enable “Restricted Mode” to limit exposure to sensitive content that may show up in your watch history.
Turn off personalized recommendations, since these are based on your watch history and likes.
Be cautious about watching private or close friends’ videos, as they can see their own analytics.
Adjust privacy settings for individual videos you post so only certain people can view them.
Clearing Your Watch History
If you want to delete your TikTok watch history and remove all records of videos you’ve viewed, you can do so directly within the TikTok app. Here are the steps to clear your TikTok watch history on both iOS and Android devices:
On iOS:
- Open the TikTok app and tap on the ‘Profile’ icon in the bottom right.
- Tap on the three horizontal lines in the top right corner to open the menu.
- Select ‘Settings and privacy’ from the menu.
- Tap on ‘Clear watch history’ and confirm by tapping ‘Delete’ on the pop-up message.
On Android:
- Open the TikTok app and tap on the ‘Me’ tab on the bottom.
- Tap on the three dots in the top right corner to open the menu.
- Select ‘Settings and privacy’ from the menu.
- Tap on ‘Clear watch history’ and confirm by tapping ‘Delete’ on the pop-up message.
This will immediately wipe your entire TikTok watch history. The videos you’ve liked or shared will not be affected. You’ll start with a clean slate for video recommendations moving forward.
Watch History on Other Social Media
Compared to TikTok, other popular social media platforms have somewhat different watch history settings and privacy controls. On YouTube, watch history is private by default – it is viewable only to your account unless you intentionally share it. YouTube also allows you to pause watch history at any time. Some users have expressed concerns about how private this history actually is from Google, but YouTube states watch history data is not used for personalized ads if you disable that setting.
Instagram also tracks watch history to power its recommendation algorithm. Users have raised privacy concerns about how much of this data is shared with parent company Meta/Facebook. However, there is no ability for friends or followers to see your Instagram watch history. The platform does not have a watch history page that lists videos you’ve viewed.
Facebook Watch also records watch history to recommend videos but does not appear to share it with friends or followers. So across leading platforms, full watch history visibility to friends appears to be a uniquely TikTok feature among major social video apps.
Other TikTok Privacy Settings
In addition to controlling who can see your likes and watch history, there are other important privacy settings to be aware of on TikTok:
You can make your account private so only approved followers can see your videos. Go to Settings > Privacy and toggle on “Private Account” [1].
You can also limit comments on your videos to just people you follow or turn off commenting completely. This prevents unwanted interactions. Adjust this under Settings > Privacy > Comment Control [2].
TikTok also allows you to hide your likes, hide view counts, restrict duets, and limit your inbox messages for added privacy and control.
Keep in mind TikTok’s minimum age is 13. The app recommends users under 18 set their account to private for optimal safety.
Conclusion
In summary, your TikTok watch history and likes are private by default. Friends and followers cannot see the specific videos you’ve watched or liked unless you intentionally share those videos on your profile. However, friends may be able to see which hashtags and sounds you’ve viewed recently if you interact with that content publicly. You can clear your watch history at any time in your account settings. TikTok also allows you to customize other privacy settings like comments, duets, stitches, and more. Overall, TikTok aims to keep your viewing activity private unless you choose to share it.
Your watch history and likes offer a glimpse into your interests and preferences. While TikTok keeps that information private, you can selectively share videos you find interesting or entertaining. At the same time, be mindful of how your interactions may expose some of your recent viewing history. Adjust your settings as needed to tailor your preferred level of privacy.
