TikTok is a phenomenon that you can't really explain well enough in text. Tiktok you have to see. It is a platform that is full of short videos, mainly from the generation of young people between the ages of 16 and 30.
TikTok was founded by Bytedance, which bought Music.ly in 2017. The idea is that you record a video of yourself playback and share it in the TikTok app, which is available for Android and iOS. One video lasts between six and fifteen seconds, but it is also possible to paste four videos together as a kind of story so that you have 60 seconds of film. You will soon see that you will not only encounter video creators on TikTok who lip-sync, there is also a lot of original content on the platform. And cat videos.
No explanation
It's a bit of an odd sensation if you're new to the app, as you'll be presented with a 'For You' section right away. Here you can see all TikTok videos from people you don't know. The idea is that this will inspire you to make a fun video yourself and to follow people who are popular on the platform. If you have been on Tiktok for a while, you will see content from acquaintances and topics that you have liked more often.
If you really only want to see content from people you follow, you can click on the Followingbutton. The bottom left loupe lets you search for users, hashtags, and numbers people use in their post.
Nothing further is explained, so you'll have to tap something yourself to find out what it means. On the other hand, the icons partly speak for themselves: on the right are, for example, the well-known like heart, the reaction balloon and the share arrow. At the bottom of the screen it is a bit more complicated. Here's what the icons mean from left to right:
- cottage - with this you go to your 'home page' and you can refresh your feed
- Planet - the discovery area, where you can meet new talent
- Square with plus - This is the button to make your own video
- Speech bubble - Similar to the comments, but represents notifications to you personally
- figure - This is how you get to your own profile
At the bottom left of the video itself you can see who places it, which hashtag belongs to it and which music can be heard.
Make your own TikTok video
To use TikTok you can create an email address and password, but you can also use Facebook. The app will ask you when you were born, as people under the age of 12 cannot use the social platform. There are also people on this popular platform who have little intentions, and there is an age restriction to protect children from this.
As you just saw, the icon with the plus in the middle at the bottom of your screen is the button with which you can upload your own video. This works just like on Instagram or Snapchat: you can use filters, but also cut a little bit in your video or have things played in slow-motion or very quickly. Especially the faster version is very popular on TikTok. You can add another sound at the top. You can choose from a large library. Think of Top 40 Netherlands, TikTok Viral and Movies & TV.
Then you can record yourself and put the photo on TikTok. Then you have to wait for how many followers, fans and hearts you will get. Although, recording a video probably takes a lot of time at first. If only because there are heaps of fun filters to try out.
