TikTok features Archives

TikTok is the largest growing video platform. It has a large audience, primarily teenagers, who either uploads short creatives or consumes them as fans. TikTok has recently announced a new privacy feature for teens to protect them from exploitative DMs and harassment.

TikTok, through a blog post, said that the platform will now automatically switch off direct messaging for new users aged between 16 and 17. Teens can now easily switch their DMs on in the settings, but it will be their choice.

The app will also prompt the current users in the same age range to review and confirm their privacy settings when using DM for the first time. The new feature will be an automated one but draws more attention to privacy concerns.

TikTok has previously disabled direct messaging for all users under the age of 16. Users aged 16 to 17 will now get a popup when someone tries to download their videos, asking them to confirm that and warning them that their content could be shared on other platforms.

On the other hand, the download feature is already disabled for users under the age of 16. However, they will get an alert too. When children of this age group go to publish a video, TikTok will ask them to select what users will see their video: followers, followers that they follow back, or just themselves. Accounts under 16 are already private by default, meaning that they do not have the option to allow everyone to see their videos.

TikTok is also curbing nighttime push notifications since children need to get a good sleep.

“We want to help our younger users in particular develop positive digital habits early on, and we regularly consult with leading paediatric experts and youth well-being advocates,” TikTok wrote. “Accounts aged 13 to 15 will not receive push notifications from 9 p.m., and accounts aged 16 to 17 will have push notifications disabled starting at 10 p.m.”

Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to be on TikTok, and the company deleted over 7 million accounts that were suspected of falling under this range.

TikTok’s new feature will go global over the next few months.

Almost every major social media app now has one thing in common; Stories. It is TikTok’s turn to experiment with the story feature on its platform. Matt Navarra confirmed the new feature on Twitter.

‘TikTok Stories’ appears to work similarly to that on other platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, where users will be able to see content posted by accounts they follow for 24 hours before it gets deleted.

This comes just after messaging app Whatsapp rolled out a feature for users to post photos or videos that vanish once they are opened. Whatsapp has named it a ‘View Once’ feature.

The new TikTok feature lives in a newly-added slide-over sidebar, where you will get to see the disappearing stories. Users will be able to react and comment on your story, too, and you will also be able to tap on the user’s profile picture to load a story.

TikTok, which ByteDance owns, told the BBC,

“We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience. Currently we’re experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community.”

TikTok describes this feature as a new way to interact with your fans. Users can create stories and add the usual captions, music, and text. Considering TikTok’s video-first nature, it seems you can add videos to the stories and not still images.

However, the company did not provide any further details on how extensively it is testing TikTok stories, or when we can witness its wider release. For now, this feature has been rolled out for selected users.

Stories have been constants in all major social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Netflix, and Youtube. It is not surprising that Tiktok decided to experiment with the feature. The Story Feature was initially rolled out on Snapchat back in 2013.

However, Twitter is the latest example of why Stories aren’t always successful since the platform was forced to shut down its feature called Fleets just eight months after its launch.