I did. I finally did it. I bit the bullet and downloaded TikTok. And, within minutes, I was hooked.
There was an issue I bumped into quite quickly though — it’s tough as hell to find something you watched earlier. There have been plenty of times where I scrolled past a video that somehow lodged in my brain, but, when I tried to find it again, I was lost. It was gone.
Thankfully, it appears the solution to this problem may be close at hand:
Shared by social media consultant and ex-TNW’er Matt Navvarra (who was retweeting Hammond Oh ), it appears TikTok is working on a feature that will allow users to look through their previously watched videos.
This will be accessible in the app’s settings and will be available for seven days .
For me, a ‘Watch History’ function can’t come soon enough. Yeah, if you’ve liked a video it’s easy enough to find it (it’s on a tab on your profile page), but if you haven’t? It’s a nightmare .
There have been plenty of times I’ve seen something that I’ve not really wanted to like , but was interesting or came up in conversation later. For example, while TikTok’s algorithm was figuring out my preferences, it began showing me a series of videos where women would hold up swimwear in front of them before a final frame flashed and showed them wearing it.
This wasn’t what I wanted on my feed, so I didn’t like the posts. Yet, this format arose in a chat I was having about TikTok’s recommendation system, and it was impossible to easily find examples.
The videos were lost in the ether. In this case, a ‘Watch History’ function would’ve been ideal.
I do hope TikTok makes it more than just a simple list though. Considering how much damn time I spend on the app (and, in turn, how many videos I consume) it’s vital to include the option to search your viewing history by view time, topics, and tags — otherwise it’ll take hours to find that specific content people just have to see.
Currently, there’s no word on when TikTok will roll out a ‘Watch History’ function, but we’ll update this piece when it’s confirmed.
