Well, you must have realized most of those short funny videos your friends are sharing on their WhatsApp statuses have a TikTok icon on them, right? I have been wondering about it too. I’m a very inquisitive person with social media apps and why a lot of people are using it, that’s how I ended up using twitter and these days I open it twice every thirty minutes. The Chinese TikTok app, with 500M+ downloads on play store alone and an equivalent on the App Store, caught my attention, I think it is been a favorite app for a lot of social media users this year.
The app is about 66 MB and about 30.8 MB for an iOS user, not so light but I would say it’s worth the fun and interactivity it brings. Based on my experience let me take you through what the app is really about and help you understand why this app is threatening both Facebook and Instagram in terms of popularity this year.
Why you should try it out
TikTok is a fun app that allows you to create and share videos with your friends and the entire world. Lip-syncing videos have proved a popular form of user-generated content among many social media who are now looking for something different from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The popularity of TV shows such as Lip Sync Battle has also helped drive interest in this type of platform.
Users can also jump onto trending hashtags on the app, trending is the new way of keeping up and following the vibe. The app allows you to compete in the different challenges which can be entered via the trending hashtags on the app under its discovery tab.
For many of these users, gaining likes, followers and getting their videos featured on the app are important priorities. Creating and sharing their own content is now a big part of how the users spend their time online. Social media users are moving away from being spectators online to becoming content creators. This app can be a really creative way, fun way to express yourself and create your own social media content.
How to Create a Tiktok Account
TikTokUsers can either sign up using their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or email account. The app asks you for the option you want to sign up with but you can also use the app without signing up. Just like other social media apps, a few followers are suggested for you, where you can start from most of them coming from people in your contact that use the app so that you can follow them.
Interactive Features
After creating an account you are provided with an interface that has a home, discover, plus (+) for adding new videos, an inbox and your profile tab where you can view your profile
The app automatically posts videos on your timeline or page based on the most trending videos and they are suggested for you on your for video feeds meaning you can enjoy the app without following anyone. However, you can choose to see videos from only the people you follow by switching to following on top of the app rather than for you. You can view video after video by scrolling down until you get tired
The app also comes with new several features including a reaction feature that allows its user to react to friend’s videos, for example, you can like a video using the heart emoji or by double-tapping on it the Instagram way, you can even comment on any video.
It has enhanced creative tools like interactive gesture, filters, unlock features such as funhouse mirror camera effects; VR-type filters that can be activated just by blinking; Green screen-like background effects
How does Tiktok Work?
I am sure the biggest question is, how TikTok works? Well it works like most other apps, users can follow other users, like and comment on other users’ videos. I noticed that most of the celebrities are on this app and they are actually verified with a blue tick just like on Facebook and Instagram. It’s a very addictive video app.
TikTok Users can select the song they wish to use in their video first, then record themselves miming along to the music. Alternatively, users can record their video first and then select a song or any other sound, for example voicing from common memes and YouTube videos, news clips, and many other sounds. The app has lots of ways to add more fun to users’ videos, for example, there are options to shoot in slow-mo., time-lapse, fast forward, filters, effects or even play the song backward and many more.
Once users are happy with their video, they can post it to their followers and share it on other social networks for example; Messenger, Vine, WhatsApp, etc. You can download the videos on you like on TikTok by long-pressing on a given video of interest and select save video
There is also a duet feature which allows you to connect with another user and lip-sync together.
The search tool allows users to view other videos. Users can also view content under the trending hashtags and submit videos using these hashtags (similar to how Instagram works). The hashtags are also used to submit videos for challenges for example; #eddykenzochallenge. it works almost the same as Likee you can try it out but remember it uses a lot of data too, you may opt for its Lite version instead.
