Circle Feature Guide: History

Circle keeps an up-to-the-minute record of sites that a Profile has accessed, as well as a list of sites that have been filtered out. All of this is accessible by tapping the History option on a family member's Profile.

What should I know about History?

Circle tracks the online traffic of each device assigned to a profile and displays that in the History view chronologically. The Usage view is another way to see that data.
Only traffic from devices assigned to that profile appear in History.
The History view has two options: Visited displays what sites were loaded on the devices assigned to that profile while Filtered displays what sites the device attempted to load and were blocked from doing so. The Filtered section shows why a site was blocked based off your app or category settings. Sites blocked due to a Bedtime, Focus Time, Pause, or Time Limits will not appear there.
You can tap on a site in the History view to try and visit it, or change your settings for that site to set it as allowed, not allowed, or unmmanaged. Some sites may not load from the History view. See below for more info.
The History view cannot be deleted unless you delete the profile as well. The article section below details more.
History is not available for profiles set to the None filter level.
Circle only keeps 7 days of History for each profile and you can use search at the top to look for a specific site. Check out the Usage view to learn about older online time for that profile.

How to view a family member's History

Launch the Circle app and tap the family member profile whose History you want to view.
Tap History.
The picker at the top of the screen lets you switch between sites that were Visited and sites that were Filtered.
Swipe up on the screen to view History further back in time.

Actions you can take for sites you see in History

Open History for a family member.
Tap any site in History you want to take action on.
Select one of the actions described below.

Why does a site appear under Visited or Filtered?

Sites appear in the History >> Visited or Filtered sections because a device assigned to the profile visited the site long enough for Circle to count that as traffic, or in the case of Filtered, tried to load the site.

The History view has two options: Visited displays what sites were loaded on the devices assigned to that profile. Filtered displays what sites the device attempted to load and were blocked from doing so. If a site appears under the Filtered section that means the device tried to load that site and Circle blocked it from loading. Each attempt to load the site will appear under the Filtered section.

The Filtered section shows why a site was blocked based off your app or category settings. Sites blocked due to a Bedtime, Focus Time, Pause, or Time Limits will not appear there.

What each History action means

Visit Website. Not sure what a site actually is? Tap this option to open it in your phone's web browser. Note: some sites, such as ones hosted by advertisers or content delivery networks (CDNs), might not be accessible in this way. A site will not load if it is part of an app or CDN that is meant to be open only by the app.
Set as Allowed. Create a Custom Filter for this site, ensuring devices on this Profile are permitted to continue visiting it.
Set as Not Allowed. Create a Custom Filter for this site that no longer permits devices on this Profile to visit it.
Set as Unmanaged. Create a Custom Filter for this site that makes the site Unmanaged. Devices on this Profile will now be able to visit this site at all times, even after Bedtime and during Focus Times. History and Usage will not be recorded for this site any longer.

What is all this stuff in my History?

Sometimes, History can look strange.

You might be checking your Usage and History, and wondering why certain websites are listed that you don't recognize or don't think your family member has visited. For example, www.netflix.com makes sense, but what about http://ipv4-c032-pdx001-ix.1.oca.nflxvideo.net?

The entries you see in History and Usage are Internet destinations that a family member's device attempted to access. In the example above, the really long link is actually a service that powers Netflix behind the scenes to make viewing possible. What someone experiences as the Netflix app or website is being powered by accessing much less recognizable web addresses.

Learn more about other potentially strange History and Usage entries.

Why can't I open this link in History?

Some sites that appear in History won't open in your mobile device's browser if you tap "Visit Website". This is usually because the History entry that you tapped is a link to a service being loaded by some other app or website and is not a website that will load in your device's browser (like we discussed above).

These links show up in History because Circle sees this traffic and categorizes it accordingly. A good way to learn more about what your family members are doing online is to compare the History and Usage views for the same time period.

Can I clear or delete History for a profile?

Circle does not support clearing or deleting History for a profile. Read more about your options here.

The Circle app retains 7 days of History for each profiles and 50 days of Usage.