TikTok’s meteoric rise—with over 1.58 billion monthly active users globally—has made it a powerhouse for creators seeking views, engagement, and growth.But does TikTok show who viewed your video? In short: No.
While you can track views, likes, comments, and shares, the platform limits access to individual viewer identities. Curious about Post View History, Profile Views, or how TikTok compares to Instagram and YouTube in terms of viewer privacy?
This guide dives into what TikTok does and doesn’t share, how to enable available features, and the best analytics tricks for creators to understand their audience. TikTok doesn’t show who viewed your videos, but there are some ways to find out and we’ll explore them here.
TikTok doesn't show you who's viewed your video, but it does allow you to see how many views it's had. This is similar to other social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook, as receiving a list of who's viewed your videos goes against their policies.
Not knowing who's viewing your video may make you feel a bit in the dark, but TikTok offers the Post View History feature. With it, you can see which of your followers have viewed your videos posted in the last 7 days.
You won't receive the names of people who have viewed your video but don't follow your profile. TikTok users who manually choose to deactivate the feature can also do so. This will affect the total number of profiles they can view, and will be unequal to the total number of views you have.
This TikTok feature is optional, so you must activate it manually. To do so, you must:
1. In the TikTok app, click on the “Settings and privacy” part at the bottom.
2. Once you are in the Settings and Privacy section, select privacy.
3. Now click on Privacy, and select Post views.
4. Turn "Post view history" on or off. Keep in mind that even if you turn this on, you will only be able to see the profiles of those followers who also have it activated.
TikTok allows you to see other things that are extremely useful for content creators. Here we'll explore them:
Comments are public, so you can always see who's commenting, but TikTok also allows you to see who liked your videos.
Initially, TikTok will show you the number of likes (as well as comments and shares), and you may see some profiles pop up as bubbles, although these are people who liked your video and their account is public.
1. Go to your inbox tab and click on the "Activity" section.
2. Once you are there you'll see a list of users who liked your video (as well as comments and shares), usually grouped by post.
Pro tip: The easiest way to see who liked your video is if you tap on a specific notification. This is super simple and will take you directly to the video and that user's profile. But it's not as useful if you receive hundreds of thousands of likes, as it's harder to view manually.
Yes, TikTok shows you who's viewed your profile, although you must have the "Profile View History" option enabled to do so. However, you'll only be able to see the list of users who also have this option enabled.
The profile viewer counter works like this: you'll see which users visited your profile, although you won't be able to tell if they did so from the search bar (by searching for your handle) or after watching a video on the For You Page.
Alternatively, they may have visited your profile but not watched a video: the system will still record them.
This is the step-by-step process to activate the profile viewer option—and other users will also be able to see that you've viewed theirs. Keep in mind that it's available to people with more than 5,000 followers and those over 16 years old.
1. Once you open the TikTok app, click on the Settings and privacy section at the bottom.
2. Once you are in the Settings and Privacy part, select privacy.
3. Click on Privacy, and you will be able to go to Profile Views
4. Now you can turn the Profile View History setting on or off according to your preference. This setting is turned off by default, so if you want to be able to view it, you'll have to follow this step-by-step process.
By following this procedure, you'll be able to view your profile viewer list, although the history is updated every 30 days—you won't be able to see views older than that.
TikTok doesn't allow you to see an exact list of who's watched your video due to user privacy policies. For this reason, if the user enables the option to make this activity viewable in their profile, you'll be able to view it.
TikTok puts a strong emphasis on user privacy, which is why it doesn't show a complete list of who watches your videos. This design choice encourages open browsing and viewing without pressure or awkwardness—users can explore freely without worrying they’ll be "caught watching."
This feature (or lack thereof) also impacts user behavior. Since TikTok doesn’t expose individual viewers, people feel more comfortable watching content from a wide range of creators, including strangers.
The flip side is that as a creator, you don’t always get a clear picture of your audience beyond likes, comments, and shares. That’s why TikTok offers partial visibility through tools like Post View History or Profile Views, but always with mutual consent. If someone wants to stay anonymous, the platform gives them that right.
Compared to TikTok, platforms like Instagram and YouTube also don’t show exactly who viewed your videos—but each has its own way of handling viewer data.
Instagram, for instance, lets you see who viewed your Stories, but not who watched your Reels or regular video posts. YouTube goes a step further in analytics, offering creators in-depth demographic insights (like viewer age, gender, location, and watch time) through YouTube Studio. However, just like TikTok, it doesn’t give you a list of individual video viewers.
TikTok’s approach is actually pretty standard in the world of social media. All major platforms prioritize privacy over detailed viewer transparency. But with tools like Post View History and Profile Views, TikTok gives creators a little more context—just enough to make smarter decisions without crossing any privacy lines.
The good news is that not being able to see who's watching your videos doesn't affect your chances of becoming famous on TikTok. You can thrive on the platform using its other analytics, and even additional tools that allow you to take your profile to the next level.
For anyone who wants to be a TikTok influencer, you need to make better friends with TikTok analytics. Provided by the platform itself, they guarantee you'll receive up-to-date insights and help you understand your true performance.
You'll be able to access the number of views, likes, comments, and shares per video, follower growth, average watchtime, and profile views.
Engagement rate is one of the most important performance indicators, as it shows you how much users are interacting with your content, indicating that it's relevant and engaging.
There are different ways to calculate engagement rate on TikTok such as manually, but to make it easier, we recommend using our free TikTok engagement rate calculator. Just enter your handle and you'll receive data such as your engagement rate, number of fake followers, and much more.
In the absence of a video viewer list, stay on top of your game by monitoring comments and follower growth. You don't have to do this every day; in fact, once a month is recommended. This way, it doesn't take up too much of your schedule and you can see significant changes.
If your content has gone viral, or you've noticed recent changes, you can do this monitoring every two weeks. This is especially recommended for accounts that are constantly growing and don't want to overlook key performance insights.
While TikTok doesn’t let you see exactly who’s watched your videos, it still gives creators plenty of ways to measure performance. Features like Post View History, Profile Views, and TikTok Analytics offer valuable context to understand what’s working and who’s engaging.
Just like Instagram and YouTube, TikTok prioritizes viewer privacy—but that doesn’t stop you from growing. By focusing on the right metrics and tools, you can still build a loyal audience and refine your content strategy with confidence.
Check out these articles as well: