What is TikTok and why everyone is crazy about it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

All about the social network, which is insanely popular among young people and not only.

What is TikTok

Basically, this is the quintessence of Vine, Instagram Stories, Snapchat and other services focused on the short video format. On TikTok, users post small, vertical videos that are 15 seconds long and gain millions of views. These are mainly music videos, comedy sketches, dances, reactions to trends and other activities.

Many consider this social network to be another entertainment for teenagers, where they just grimace at the camera and conduct various flash mobs. This is partly true, but with the growth of the platform's audience, celebrities and advertisers have become interested in it, and well-known bloggers now regard TikTok as another distribution channel.

Why social media TikTok is so popular

The Chinese app was originally a service for editing and publishing short videos to which you could add music. The social network gained popularity outside of China after the acquisition of a similar application musical.ly, a large user base of which automatically became the audience of TikTok.

TikTok carved out the niche of mini-video publishing services, capturing the audience of the closed Vine and taking away the share of Instagram Stories. The format of short videos with rich editing capabilities, as they say, shot. For example, in the United States at the end of 2018, the social network surpassed the number of downloads of such giants as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

How to use TikTok

In many ways, the platform is very similar to its counterparts, and if you've ever used Snapchat or Instagram Stories, it's easy to figure out the functionality. However, there are still some differences and nuances in TikTok.

registration

In principle, the application is easy to use without registration, but in this case, you can only scroll through the feed and watch popular videos. To subscribe to the Tiktokers of interest, set preferences and publish content yourself, you will have to register.

As in any other application, all you need to do is connect your VKontakte, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram profile, or register using your phone or mail. It's simple.

View feed

The tabs located at the bottom of the screen are used to navigate within the application. The main one is the ribbon. Almost all the space in it is reserved for content: using the buttons at the top, you can switch between subscriptions and recommendations, and a row of icons on the right is used to interact with the video.

They are responsible for subscribing to the author of the video, likes, comments, as well as sharing to other social networks and calling up a menu with additional functions. In addition to the author's description and hashtags, at the bottom of the screen there is information about the track used in the video.

Control in the feed is carried out using swipes. Swipes up and down switch videos, and swipe to the right opens the profile of the author of the video, where information about him and other content is displayed. By clicking on the button with three dots, you can turn on notifications about new clips of the user, share a link to him, write a private message, and also report or block.

Content search

On the "Search" tab, it is easy to find the person of interest, music or video by hashtag. In addition, it also displays curated content and currently popular tags.

Another useful feature is the QR code scanner, which is used to quickly subscribe to users. In it, you can view your personal QR code and show it to another person.

Notifications and messages

All your activity is collected on the notifications tab. Alerts about new videos and live broadcasts, information about events and TikTok trends, as well as private messages in which you can correspond with other users of the social network.

Profile

The "Profile" section, like in Instagram, serves to display information about you. In addition to the gallery, published and liked videos, there are statistics on subscribers and likes, a description of the profile and the ability to call application settings. Using the buttons on the top panel, you can add users from the list of contacts and friends in social networks, as well as open a personal QR code by which other Tiktokers can follow you.

Shooting a new video

The central button on the toolbar is dedicated to the most important function - content creation. As usual, there are two ways: shoot and publish a new video, or select a finished video from the gallery. The editing options are slightly different.

Using the panel on the right, while shooting, you can switch between smartphone cameras, adjust the video speed, use the beautifier, filters, and also activate the "Hands-Free" function and switch between 15-second format and long videos.

At the bottom, there is a menu of stickers and masks, where a wide variety of content is available, in the spirit of Snapchat and Instagram Stories. There are favorites, a tab of popular items and a division into categories.

By pressing the button at the top of the screen, you can attach music to the video. In addition to regular searches, you can choose from curated selections, charts, playlists by genre, and personalized lists. After adding a track, you can customize the piece of music using the note button on the sidebar.

Video shooting is carried out while holding the record button, so you can shoot in short scenes and delete unsuccessful ones. When the video is ready, clicking on the checkmark will open the publish menu.

Here you add hashtags, descriptions, select privacy settings and export to other social networks. Then the video can be saved to drafts or immediately published, after which it will appear in the feed.

Publish video from gallery

To upload a finished video to TikTok, you need to select it from the gallery using the icon to the right of the record button. Unlike Instagram Stories, any video is available here, and you can select either one file or several. Once selected, the editing menu will open, where you can rotate the video, crop it or change the speed.

The next screen is used to add music, filters and stickers, as well as various special effects like slow-mo, shake, zoom and others. In addition, the video can be looped or reverse playback. The frame for the cover is also assigned here.

As with posting new videos, the last step is to select privacy settings, add descriptions, hashtags, and assign other options.

Duo recording

In addition to music-synced videos, in which the authors pretend to sing or voice popular videos, there are other formats in TikTok. One of them is duets. As the name implies, they imply collaboration with other users.

Duets are a bit like coubs. For recording, a video is taken with the original sound, which takes half a frame, and the rest is given to the second participant. After shooting, the video is combined, and you can upload it to your feed. Some of these paired performances are getting as many views as the original clips.

To shoot a duet, you need to click the "Share" button on the video in the feed and select "Duet". During recording, you can use effects, filters, stickers and other features that are available in regular videos.

Recording reaction

Another option for collaboration is reactions to clips from other users. A popular format that bloggers often use, TikTok is implemented very conveniently. In just a few seconds, you can record a reaction to a video you like or don't like by immediately publishing it in your feed.

For similar posts, in the same way, you need to open the "Share" menu, and then select the "Reaction" button. Your video is superimposed in the form of a small window over the original video. It can be moved to any part of the screen within the designated area.

Of course, all processing tools apply to reactions as well. You have at your disposal a beautifier, adjusting the playback speed, as well as filters, special effects and, of course, stickers. Publishing will have the same options as when uploading your own clips.

Who should follow on TikTok

In addition to aspiring creatives, TikTok has well-known bloggers and celebrities who post exclusive content to social media. Some of those worth following are Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. Among the Russian stars on the platform are Little Big, Timati, as well as Garik Kharlamov and Vova Selivanov from Real Boys.

Like any other social network, TikTok has algorithms that, depending on likes and subscriptions, recommend new interesting content and talented users. And, of course, there will always be viral videos and major trends in your feed.