INSTRUCTION CARD 1 OF 8
How many Reels do I watch a day?
Nobody shows you that number. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube count your minutes, not your swipes. Divide the minutes by how long one Reel holds you, or let a counter tally every swipe.
Estimate it in two dials
Take your minutes from the app's own time screen or your phone's screen time. Then guess how many seconds you stay on one Reel before you swipe.
The guess is the weak part. A Reel you skip in two seconds counts as much as one you watch to the end, so a guess from minutes can be far off either way.
Count it exactly
highscroll is a free Android app that adds one point for each Reel and TikTok you swipe, and shows the day's total as a high score with the distance your thumb ran. The score resets at 4 a.m.
- On our own test feed on a Sony Xperia 10 II, it counted 10 of 10 swipes the way Reels scroll and 10 of 10 the way TikTok scrolls, and 185 of 185 in a longer run. YouTube Shorts is not verified yet.
- It has no internet permission, so the count never leaves your phone. No account, no AI.
- It needs Android's accessibility service, like every swipe counter: why, and what it does with it.
The other counters, honestly
| App | Where it wins |
|---|---|
| BrainPal | On Google Play with over a million installs, and its Pro tier blocks apps. |
| ReelCounter | On Google Play; its Pro tier adds a home-screen widget. |
| ScrollTrace | On Google Play, free with an optional Pro subscription. |
| ScrollToll | Counts swipes, not minutes, as highscroll does. |
| highscroll | No internet permission, free, and a day card to send. Not on Google Play yet: you install the APK, and Android asks once to allow your browser to install it. No iPhone app. |
Read from each app's Google Play page, site or a review on 24 October 2026.
Android only. The lock that sends you home at your own number: US$2.99.