Who appears in the list, and who does not
Plenty of articles still say TikTok never shows who watched your videos. That stopped being true when post view history arrived. The setting treats every video as a post, and the support page spells out whose views are listed. Anyone outside these groups watches without appearing:
| Viewer | Shown to you? | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| A follower who has post view history on | Yes | Both of you need the setting on. |
| A follower who has it off | No | Unless they like or comment. |
| Anyone who liked or commented | Yes | Shown whether or not they have the setting on, follower or not. |
| A stranger who only watched | No | Silent views are not listed. |
| Anyone, on a post older than 7 days | No | The history covers posts from the last 7 days. |
Your own account has to meet two conditions as well: you must be 16 or older, and the account must have fewer than 5,000 followers. Larger accounts do not get the feature at all.
So on most videos, most views stay anonymous. What you get is a partial list of people who chose to be visible or who interacted with the video, while the view count underneath still counts everyone.
How to turn on post view history
- In the TikTok app, tap Profile at the bottom.
- Tap the menu at the top, then Settings and privacy.
- Tap Privacy, then Post views.
- Turn Post view history on or off.
The setting works in both directions. With it on, people you follow who also have it on can see that you viewed their videos.
One line in the support page is easy to miss: even with the setting off, your likes and comments on other people's posts still show up to them as views. Turning it off hides your silent views and nothing else. Story views are a separate matter, and this setting does not affect them.
Profile view history: who looked at your profile
A second setting covers visits to your profile, and it follows similar rules:
- You see visits from accounts that also have profile view history on and visited in the past 30 days.
- If you visit a profile while your setting is on, and theirs is on too, they see your visit.
- The same account limits apply: 16 or older, fewer than 5,000 followers.
- It is off by default.
To change it, go to Profile, the menu, Settings and privacy, Privacy, then Profile views. The Profile views button at the top of your profile and the profile view notification in your Inbox, under Activities, lead to the same place. Turning it off means you stop seeing who viewed your profile, and others stop seeing your visits.
Post view history and profile view history compared
| What | Post view history | Profile view history |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Who viewed your posts. | Who visited your profile. |
| Time window | Videos posted in the last 7 days. | Visits in the past 30 days. |
| Needs the viewer's setting on | Yes, except for people who liked or commented. | Yes, always. |
| Account limits | 16 or older, fewer than 5,000 followers. | 16 or older, fewer than 5,000 followers. |
Instagram works differently on the same question: it never lists who watched a post or a Reel, but it does list story viewers, including on highlights for a limited time. Can people see if you view their highlights sets out the Instagram rules.
How to watch without appearing
Going by TikTok's own rules, you stay out of someone's post view history as long as:
- your post view history setting is off, and
- you do not like or comment on the video.
For profiles, keep profile view history off, which also means giving up the list of who visits you. Both settings are built as a trade.
Apps and websites that promise a full list of who watched your TikToks cannot deliver one, because TikTok does not give that data to anyone. Close any that ask for your TikTok login; if you already gave one your password, how to recover a TikTok account covers securing it. The same goes for screenshot questions, covered platform by platform in does Instagram notify when you screenshot and does Facebook notify screenshots.
What a business account can see instead
For a brand, a list of names was never the useful part, and at 5,000 followers the feature is gone anyway. What every account has is analytics for each video, which describe what happened to the content even when they do not say who watched:
- Total views and average watch time, which say whether the idea held attention.
- Where viewers came from, such as the For You feed, search, your profile or the Following feed.
- How long people watched, including the point where many of them left.
Search is the source most brands underuse, and SEO for TikTok covers how it reads a video. Reading these numbers every week and changing the next video because of them is most of what TikTok marketing is, whether you do it yourself or through our TikTok marketing service. The free social media audit does one pass for your account.
How we will test this
Not run yetEverything above comes from the published sources listed below, and nothing here is presented as something we measured. Our own test on live accounts has not been run yet.
This is the test we will run: we use three of our own TikTok accounts: one posts, one follows it with post view history on, and one does not follow it and only watches. We record which views appear to the poster, with each setting on and off, and whether a like makes a silent viewer visible.
Platforms change behavior without announcing it, so once the first test is run we repeat it every quarter, and this section will say when it was run and on which devices and app versions.
Sources
Read on September 18, 2026.
- TikTok Support, TikTok post view history
- TikTok Support, Profile view history
Questions people ask next
Does TikTok show who viewed your video?+
Partly. With post view history on, TikTok lists followers who also have it on, and anyone who liked or commented, for posts from the last 7 days. Other viewers stay anonymous.
Can people see if I watched their TikTok?+
Only if you have post view history on and they do too, or if you liked or commented on the video. With the setting off and no interaction, your view is not listed.
Can you see who viewed your TikTok if you have more than 5,000 followers?+
No. Only people aged 16 or older with fewer than 5,000 followers have post view history and profile view history.
How far back does TikTok post view history go?+
It shows views on posts that were posted within the last 7 days.
Does TikTok show who viewed your profile?+
Yes, through profile view history, if both of you have the setting on. It covers visits in the past 30 days and is off by default.
If I turn off post view history, do my likes still show?+
Yes. Your comments and likes on other people's posts still appear to them as views, even with the setting off.
Does post view history include story views?+
No. Story view history is separate and not affected by the post view history setting.
Can someone see if I watched their TikTok more than once?+
The support page describes a list of viewers, not a count per person, so repeat views are not described as visible.
Do TikTok view tracker apps work?+
No. They cannot see data TikTok does not share. Apps that ask for your TikTok password put the account at risk.
Does TikTok notify someone when you view their video?+
No notification is sent for a view. When both settings are on, your view appears in their post view history, which they have to open.