However, if you are using it just to cruise and watch some clips every now and then, it won’t have any difference or impact on your use, nor will you ever need to switch.

On the other hand, if you are a creator or someone with a business to promote, knowing what the TikTok Pro account is and what features it has will help you get more TikTok followers and pump up the engagement rate.

You will learn how Pro account differs from a regular one for creators and businesses with the most common and simple language.

Let us dive right in!

What is a Tik Tok Pro account?

TikTok Pro account gives exclusive access to things that regular accounts won’t. Useful insights into your profile and video’s performance, and the possibility to learn about the performance, reach, and overall growth of the page.

If you are not planning to use the platform for anything other than to watch some clips, you won’t need any of those statistical features. 

But if you plan to grow on TikTok, having access to Analytics in a Business Suite will be of the most importance. 

There are two types of Pro accounts: Creator & Business

The TikTok Pro account for creators is meant for individuals planning to become influencers and popular. 

You can also use a Pro account for creators if you are a blogger or vlogger of some sort and want to expand your reach through TikTok. 

The TikTok Pro Business account is meant for entrepreneurial people with businesses of some sort. But it is more than that because as a business account there are things you can do that you cannot do with the creator’s account. 

We will talk about those more in a few minutes. 

Business accounts are meant for not only businesses. So you could also be a blogger and have your TikTok Pro account be a Business Pro account. 

That depends on your preference. 

Why should I upgrade my TikTok to Pro account 

Now, if you have been using TikTok for a while now and may think that it has all that you need and feel comfortable with it. 

Because as can be seen in the table below, the TikTok Pro accounts come with a whole load of new features and possibilities to conquer the world of TikTok. The comparison table lists all the Pro account features we will be discussing throughout this post.

The best thing about it is that it is easy to change, and adapt, you literally won’t have any of the capabilities taken away but added more. 

There are a whole bunch of various kinds of benefits to changing to a Pro account on TikTok, but the real benefit is the Analytics you get. 

Every single person with a TikTok Pro account gets access to the Analytics and some more. The other types of benefits you get depend on the type of Pro account you have. As we mentioned, there are two types with a bit of difference in their features. 

TikTok Pro account vs Personal account 

In terms of posting and being able to watch various kinds of videos and such, there is literally no difference between the TikTok Pro and the personal accounts

The differences start to come out when you want to do more than just watch something on the platform. 

For example, if you want to become an influencer, you will need information about your followers and the videos and how well they are doing, and other stats provided by Analytics.

TikTok Pro account Analytics 

As we have mentioned that any account that has upgraded to the Pro account will have access to the analytics. 

With the analytics though comes the possibility to check the Overview of the account. You will be able to see how many video views you had, profile views, likes, comments, shares, etc.

You will be able to set the duration depending on how long you want the information to be fixed. By default, it will show you the last 7 days of activity. 

You will also have the Content tab where you can see how your posts are doing. You will have a dedicated area for the posts that are trending. 

There is also a Followers tab where you can see the total number of followers for a set period of time. New followers and the growth rate with the gender and more information will also be available under this tab. 

The TikTok Analytics may seem small and lack some information in comparison to other social media platforms. 

Yet just by looking at the number of followers and which posts brought them, you can start to realize that certain posts and times bring in more followers while others do not. If you are also interested in how the time when the post goes live affects the chances of getting views and likes you could learn all about the best time to post on TikTok.

What are the benefits of TikTok Pro account (Creator)

You are allowed to use all the music available on the platform. This gives you a better chance to go viral as you should have access to popular and trendy music. 

This is also a great way to keep up to date and be in trend if you are an influencer or want to be one. After all, TikTok is all about trends. Luckily for you, in its blog, TikTok has published updates on music trends of 2021 and continues revealing popular creators and trends.

You will have access to Q&A, analytics, and other sorts of Promotions. But you cannot add links to your bio unless you have 1000 followers. 

While 1000 followers might not sound like a big deal for the accounts that are just getting started, this actually is. And having that link in your bio could be the catalyst in moving whatever the number of traffic you have in the right direction. 

When a TikTok Pro account reaches 10k + followers, you are allowed to make money off your videos on the platform.

You must be over 18+ though. 

This is, however, available only to a select few countries, the list of which is below:

• The US
• The UK
• Germany 
• Italy 
• France 
• Spain 

As a creator, you want to gain as many followers as possible and keep your Profile growing, because this is how you will be making money. TikTok Pro account for creators is sort of tailored for this purpose. 

What are the benefits of TikTok Pro account (Business)

Business accounts, on the other hand, don’t have access to as many sounds or music as the ones for creators, and also are not allowed to use copyrighted music. 

However, to make up for this, the TikTok Pro account for business has a library of sounds and music that is available specifically for them.

The other advantage of Pro accounts for businesses is the ability to share links regardless of the number of their followers. 

This is perfect because you get to share the link to your website from the time you register on TikTok. Although you might not start getting a ton of traffic from the beginning. The mere existence of the link will be really good for your website SEO. 

You also get an Ad account on TikTok that you can use to run ads. This is especially useful if you are new to TikTok and you have a dropshipping business, then you are going to want to sell something. 

Just creating content and waiting for views and the followers to show up might take a while, whereas running ads might be just the right way to get those sales going on TikTok.

TikTok Pro account cost 

Now that you know the advantages of having a Pro account you might start to wonder if it costs you something.  After all, all the good stuff must come at a cost.

This could not have been far from the truth, because no matter the type TikTok Pro account is free. 

If you are wondering about how to switch to a TikTok Pro account, let us cover this next. 

How to switch to a TikTok Pro account?

STEP 1: Go to your Profile page and click on the three dots in the top right corner.

STEP 2: Choose Manage account from the menu that pops up after the click.  

STEP 3: Click on the “Switch to Pro Account” tab. 

STEP 4: Choose from the two options: for a creator and for business.

STEP 5: Choose one from the category of disciplines and professions that show up after you have chosen creator or business 

That is pretty much it. TikTok makes it really simple to use Pro and gives a bunch of features and possibilities for users to explore. 

Thus, there is no reason for you to not switch to Pro if you want to grow on TikTok.

Final Thoughts 

To wrap up, a TikTok Pro account adds more possibilities and features for people willing to use the platform for marketing purposes. 

Be it to market themselves, or their business, switching to a TikTok Pro account will be the right move in advancing that goal.

However, if you are to use the platform only for entertainment, you may not need a Pro account with its analytical data.

Either way, if you are interested in finding out more about TikTok and how to influencers make money there, check out beginners’ guide on how to make money on TikTok.

The best time to post on TikTok heavily depends on the account and the creator and the geographic location the post has been uploaded from. Then again, it is important to know all other factors influencing how fast you would be able to get more TikTok followers.

In this piece, we will be dissecting the best time for TikTok uploads into days of the week with specific times and explaining why those are best for engagement and followers. 

Audience specific times 

What are audience-specific times? You may wonder.

Those are the times when your specific audience is most free and likely to watch your content. 

To find out when they have free time, you will need to do a bit of research and reasoning.

Also, if you have ever read about choosing a niche before then, you know how important it is to target a certain group of people. 

Even more so when you are looking to find out the best time to post on TikTok.

Now for example purposes, let us assume your audience is primarily schoolchildren. What do you think is the best time to post?

Well, the more important question is what do you think is the worst time to post?

The worst time to post on TikTok would be when they are at school right?

It only makes sense that by analyzing what times are the worst, you can come close to finding the best time to post on TikTok.

From our example, we know that posting when they are at school is not good.  That should make you understand the core idea behind the post times. 

Even if you may have read somewhere that posting at about 10:30 to 11:00 am or before lunch is the best time to post. This may not work for you as your assumed audience is at school at those times. 

So, instead of looking for some tables or cheat sheets on what time is the best to post on TikTok. You need to think for yourself and find this out on your own, after all, you have all that is necessary to accomplish this. 

TikTok Analytics time

To find the best time to post on TikTok on your own, you need nothing but the dashboard analytics that TikTok Pro users have. 

This is in fact, the strongest and the most useful tool you have to not just find out about the best times to post on TikTok but also, many more other useful information. 

However, to find the best times, you need to go a bit deeper than just looking at the general analytics, but investigate each post and its activity. 

This is a bit trickier than just looking at the activity. Because the analytics won’t show up what time each view arrives at a certain post. It shows how many views you received since the time it went online. 

So, you will need to do a bit of record-keeping. After all, without a bit of work going viral wouldn’t feel as sweet as it otherwise would be. 

You don’t have to come and check every hour, but the ideal way is to have a spreadsheet ready and write the changes to each video is having at least 3 times a day. 

You could do 5 times or more or perhaps bring it down to just two. You get to decide. The idea is just to keep a record and know what times are the most change is happening. 

Let us give an example 

Repeat it every day.

Trying a few different times 

Now the table is just a somewhat banal table. But this still gives you ample practical information that can be really useful. 

For example, let us assume that the second post got some views once it was posted but got no more after that day.

But on the next day,  it got some views the second time we checked. By the way, remember that those are just random timeframes you should put on your own. We have just discussed this. 

You keep track of each change and anomaly until you get a certain bit of similarity. Of course, you could overcomplicate this and write a bunch of statistical analyses and use formulas, etc.

But the simple spreadsheet will be more than just enough as long as you keep track.

When you have say about 100 posts and each one seems to be getting more views at a certain time of the day. 

Then, you got yourself the best time to post on TikTok. But that works exclusively for you and only you. 

This is why sharing that information with other friends of yours will do no good for them. Instead, just share this article so that they can learn to do that on their own just like you. 

Now there could be many different time frames that worked and a whole load of views arriving at seemingly random times. 

That is why you cannot come to a conclusion with just a few videos. Ideally, you analyze at least a 100, but about 50 and more will do in the beginning. 

Best time to post on TikTok on Monday

When it comes to posting on Monday, you should keep in mind that it is the first working day of the week. And it is hard to get the week rolling after weekends, especially if you have had good ones.

Posting this, earlier in the morning is not very a good idea if your target audience is middle-aged, working people. 

But TikTok is a platform that requires a lot of activity, and the content is not evergreen at all. The clips expire way faster than on any other platform. 

This is why timing is crucial. For Monday, posting after 4 pm is a good idea, because that is when the willpower of all the workers have depleted and are barely holding on to finish the working day.

This is a great opportunity for wanna-be TikTokker to use. This is the best time to post only if you have the kind of content that cheers people up and heightens their mood. 

If you are in an educational niche or anything else that is not fun, then this may as well be the worst time to post because they wouldn’t want to listen to you. 

For the educational content mornings work better regardless of the day of the week,   

Best time to post on Tuesday

There is not much to say about Tuesday’s best time to post on Tik Tok for it is very much like Monday in this regard.

However, by this point, people have at least had one night of good sleep and are ready to consume content. 

Posting about noontime is the best way to get more views for people who will be watching their TikTok during the lunch breaks and so on. Some creators also find that around 9 am is the best time to post TikTok on Tuesday, which again proves the underlying difference in niche and time zones.

Always remember the target audience and what time of the day they are most likely to be free. This is actually the best time to post on TikTok that only you can know.

Best time to post [Wednesday through Friday]

Any other day of the week depending on your audience will be a little bit different but the core idea will always remain the same. 

Yet, 7 am – 8 am are the best times to post on TikTik on Wednesdays, and 12 am and 9 am as well as 7 pm – 8 pm is best for publishing Thursday TikToks. 

For Fridays, the lunchtime breaks between 1 pm and 3 pm work best as the users tend to be off to movies, clubs, and pubs later these evenings.

You should take these numbers with a pinch of salt, and really consider the keystone of how to find the best time to post on TikTok and find yours easily. 

Because at the end of the day, if you are targeting working people, they may watch your clips during lunch or after work but they won’t be really interested in watching on Friday evening. 

This is really obvious but what if you focus on kids. This might be the time when they are totally free.

Again, it all depends on your target audience.

For those who need not much reasoning but numbers to mull over, below are the best times to upload TikTok for every day of the week.

Best time to post on the weekends 

The best time to post on Saturday is not early in the morning and this you already know. But it is the noon, or after that yields the most results and the views.

Yet, weekends are tricky, because not every adult parties up on Friday night. Thus, may start to consume data earlier than one might assume. 

But to be on the safe side it is still better to post in the afternoon.  The best way to use the weekends to your advantage is by including the weekend theme in your posts. 

For example, even on Sunday when it may seem like the whole world is sleeping, posting something related to that will get people consuming from the early morning. 

Apart from the inclusion of the theme, the hashtags, the keywords, and the regularity should all be considered and taken into account.

You can read more about them in our post on the TikTok algorithm.

Throughout the week, and the weekend, your regularity plays a big role. However, if you have ever read that weekends garner fewer views than weekdays that is actually not true. 

Weekends, whether Saturday or Sunday are the times when people have free time regardless of the activity they are busy with. Thus, they are more likely to open up their phones and watch TikTok. 

This is why you should not post less on weekends than on weekdays, if anything posting a bit more gets you more results.

Best time to post on TikTok on holidays 

People don’t always talk about hits, but the best time to post on TikTok is the public holidays. 

Although TikTok is not a platform where people come to shop like Instagram and look for various things to buy for the holiday season. 

People still spend time on holidays, and the clips with holidays are watched twice as long as the views on the normal days.

Thus, any time you upload is the best time to post on TikTok during the holidays. Yet, if you are after the exact timing, late mornings from 10 am to 12 pm and early evenings between 5 pm and 7 pm are the standard peak times for TikTok users.

Holidays make it easier for new videos to get discovered. One of the best times to post on  TikTok would be Christmas or New Year. Because everyone is in the mood.

Making a video that features family and friendship and boldness, is sure to make it to more views than any channel gets on average. 

Even holidays like the 4th of July that induce a lot of patriotism and home-loving will get more views if the clips are just right, such as featuring something related to the positives of America, or something like this.

If you are in a different country, filming something related to your independence will induce that much patriotism if not more. 

The idea is to be relevant and up to date with what is happening on TikTok.

To Wrap Up

The best time to post on TikTok is the time that you get to find out and choose.  We hope we have given you enough knowledge and practical skills to be able to do just that. 

If you have been scrolling just to the end and find a summary, let us give you one. 

Well, more than just a summary but an understanding of what that actually is, and how you can really find the best time to post on TikTok on your own every time you want to post something. 

That idea is that you analyze your audience, and find as much as you can about their daily life. 

Doing the analysis itself is very simple and doesn’t take much time. All that is necessary is some common sense, and to really think it through. 

There are ample examples regarding this. If you want to understand it even better read the first two paragraphs. 

For now, check out our blog, for more on TikTok and other social media platforms to learn more helpful tips. 

The best thing about a duet on TikTok is that the other person on the other side won’t have to approve or something. It is not like on YouTube when you have to ask permission to be in their video. 

You could literally take any video that is eligible for dueting and duet the crap out of it. Although, it is possible to turn off the duet feature. 

This means there will be some videos you cannot duet on TikTok by default. Before we get into nitty-gritty details, let us first talk about; 

Meanwhile, we have a post for those who have ever wondered if follow for follow method still works on TikTok. 

Perhaps you wanted to get more TikTok followers? Then, turn to our guide for 2022 where we list 50 different ways to gain followers and grow accounts on TikTok.

What is dueting on TikTok

Dueting on TikTok is a feature that lets you make reactive videos on top of the videos of other people. 

You can react, watch, or do something together with the video. You must already know that if you have watched TikTok just for a while. 

Because some of the users on the platform have been coming with incredible and creative ways to use dueting. 

You can even duet with a video that is already being duetted with. What that means is that you can react to a react video. 

That is one of the coolest features of the platform and one that is not utilized often. Because dueting itself does the job if you are looking to get more views and likes. 

How to duet on TikTok (on Apple & on Android)

Dueting on TikTok is not hard at all, regardless of the operating system, you are on. All it takes is just a few clicks and you are duetting with someone. 

• To start a duet, you need to open the app, and find the clip you want to duet with.
• Then, click on the share icon and choose duet from the options

This is pretty much all it takes to duet with any video that allows duetting.  You should not freak out if you are not allowed to duet with some of the videos. 

As we mentioned,  the user has control over the permissibility of this action. The videos should also not be private. 

If you want to know to control this, let us quickly talk about this too

So when you are about to post a new clip onto the platform. Just before the last step when you should click on the post button, you will have three toggles. 

The middle of which will be the option to toggle the permission to duet. 

Using duets as a means of collaboration for businesses has been a great catalyst in driving business accounts. 

How to duet on TikTok with a video from gallery 

The quickest answer to this question will be no if this was all you needed to hear. 

But we know that you probably won’t take no for an answer and will be looking to find ways to make duets with a video that is already saved on your device. 

This is fact is possible, but is a bit tricky and takes a few steps to go through before you can actually post it. 

We cannot go over each step, but will explain to you the idea behind it so that you can do what you intend to do; duet on TikTok with a video from the gallery. 

You will need to download the video you want to duet with. There is a small caveat here. 

You remember that dueting was a feature that is not possible for everyone unless the owner made it so on purpose. 

The same logic applies to downloads as well. On TikTok, you have control over the possibility of the downloads. If you set the toggle to no, then your videos won’t be downloaded. 

Considering you found a video that fits all the prerequisites, we can go and explain how to duet on TikTok with a video from the gallery. 

To duet with a gallery video

Once you downloaded the video, you will need to go to your TikTok and go to the post screen without really posting, and click to add another video and choose the one from your gallery. 

Organize them side by side so that it looks like it was duetted. But what you are really doing is just cheating the viewers to think it was a duet. 

This is why you should add the user after the hashtags and let them know that you are dueting if you think it is necessary. 

Does TikTok notify when you duet ?

Now at this point, there may arise a question if TikTok notifies the user of your duet?

The answer is yes, the TikTok usually notifies the account being duetted with. 

There are some ways to avoid this if you don’t feel like letting the user know about this. But that depends on how much you don’t want them to know about this. 

Because the only way to stay away from letting the user know is by blocking them right after you duet. 

As a matter of fact, when you duet, if TikTok notifies the user, this is not a big deal. As it will help them too. 

We will talk a little bit about why you should consider dueting and making that a habit to grow your account faster.

Why to duet on TikTok 

Dueting on TikTok is one of the best ways to get more followers, views, and likes. When you react to something that is already popular, your clip is also likely to become popular. 

But this works both ways. For example, if you react to something that wasn’t so popular, but you were so creative that your reaction went viral. 

Then the original account will get some benefits from your duets too. So, when you are dueting, don’t think about it like you are leeching something off of the user. 

But think of it a different way as if you are adding more value to the video. The more value you add, the more your duet is likely to get more views and likes.

When you go viral or become popular, you will have the chance to be featured on the official site of TikTok as one of the creators to duet with. 

Now that is a goal worth chasing.

Final Thoughts 

Dueting is a feature that only belongs to TikTok. There is no other social media platform that allows you to react to other peoples’ posts. 

This brought a great deal of opportunity for the world and for those wishing to become influencers.

If you have not hopped on a train with the dueting thing yet. It is still not too late, and you should get on board as soon as possible. 

When you google TikTok downloaders, you may seem to come across quite a few of them, not all provide you with download watermarks for free. 

If finding the best TikTok video downloader is your purpose of landing on this page, you have come to the right place. 

In this post, we will list some of the TikTok video downloaders to help you get that video without the watermark. 

Because finding that very platform takes quite a bit of time researching if you intend to find it yourself.  If you are looking to grow on TikTok and want to find out how check out a complete list of ways to get more TikTok followers. 

Before we go ahead, first let us explain what a TikTok downloader is.

What is a TikTok downloader

TikTok video downloader is a tool that lets you download any video from the TikTok app. You might think why would you need one when you can actually download TikTok videos from the platform as well. 

These downloaders usually can download the video regardless of the settings on the video. This is really one of the main reasons why some of the TikTok video downloaders on our list are considered to be the best. 

These TikTok downloaders are also very easy to use because all you have to do is just enter the link and you have the video downloaded on your device. 

A small reminder if you come across one of these sites on mobile. They might make you wait 10 to 15 seconds. This is how they keep that site alive, so don’t mind them. 

Now that we have answered how does TikTok downloader no watermark work? Let us give you some real TikTok video downloader sites.

Save TikTok videos when the download button is disabled 

Just before we list all the sites, we want to share with you one of the secrets of downloading TikTok videos on the platform even when the save button is disabled. 

This is something that we only got to know ourselves, and have not gotten much use for yet. So you need to use it as much as you can before TikTok finds out and fixes it. 

Because it is more of a bug than it is a feature.  Yet, for us the users it doesn’t matter which we can still keep using them. 

The trick is when you have a video you want to download but you cannot for that very reason of the button is disabled. 

Try to click on the Share button and choose another platform like Instagram. Your device will download the video to your gallery first then take you to the Instagram page. 

But instead of moving forward with the post, you can cancel it and open up your gallery, where voila! will be the clip you wanted to download. 

The only drawback to this trick is that the clips will be watermarked, with the logo of TikTok. 

To really download TikTok videos without the watermark, let us now list the best TikTok video downloaders without the watermark.

qload.info

This site is first on our list because this is what we came up with when we were checking for the downloads without the watermark.

The best online TikTok video downloader without watermark because is a drag-and-drop type of website. 

The site looks neat and without any ads. If you were to come to download a few videos at once, this wouldn’t have been an issue either for it is quite fast. 

There is even a mobile app for Android users. That means you can actually download the app, and never worry about the TikTok watermark. 

They are one of the best TikTok video downloaders without watermark for sure, and we are not even affiliated in any way whatsoever. 

ssstik.io

This triple ‘s’ tik site is on the list second because the app contains ads. The site goes by the logo of triple “SSS” TikTok and has changed its site name a few times. If you are to visit the site and it’s not working, you can be sure they have changed it again. 

We don’t know what that is, but it just seems to me like it is changing way too often than it was supposed to. 

It doesn’t really matter why they change it, what matters is that it works very well every time. The site is neat and barely ever changes its design.

This is always one of the sites that is always on the first page of Google and undoubtedly the TikTok video downloader you wish to try.

Snaptik 

This is another good TikTok video downloader without a watermark. Much like the previous ones above, this downloader is also simple to use and is very quick. 

All it requires is you to pass the correct TikTok link and download the video.  They seem to have been in the game for so long that they even sometimes refer to TikTok as Musically, which was the original name of the app. 

The site works on all devices and doesn’t require a sign-up of any sort. Snaptik is also free and has its own app to natively download TikTok videos without watermark.

When it comes to entering the link though, you should be a bit careful and not enter the link from the browser.

Because the links from the browser contain many more unnecessary details that will make the app confused. For the sake of simplicity, you should always take the links from your mobile devices.  

Tikcd 

This is definitely a good TikTok video downloader without a watermark to try. It is simple, with good initiative design, and steps to explain how to use the site. 

Downloading a TikTok video without a watermark takes only three steps with these guys. 

• Click on the share button to take the link 
• Copy the link of the corresponding video go to the platform 
• Paste it into the input field and click download. 

These are the three steps it takes to download a TikTok video without a watermark. Their platform works on all devices.

Tikcd doesn’t seem to have a separate app but the website could be accessed from any app, that won’t be any problem. 

Another advantage to downloading TikTok videos without the watermark here is that they don’t run many. 

You should understand if they were to run ads too, because they have to somehow sustain the site, and some of the platforms on our list do run ads. 

No ads could be the reason for you to decide to choose them over others. 

Ttdownlaoder

Ttdoanloder is a website with a simplistic design and simplistic use. There is absolutely no need for any hassle with them. You will need only the link to the video you want to download and that is it. Why don’t you try this TikTok video downloader? 

While this is true for the other platforms on our list, they just make it look easier without writing too much information on the site, and making it seem like a big deal. 

Ttdownlaod doesn’t have any apps but the site is still accessible with any device just by writing their name to your browsers. 

A fun addition to the video downloader without watermark is their TikTok to gif converter. It is not always you want to convert the video into gifs, but if you ever want to convert. 

Ttdownlaoder should be the first site you consider landing. 

Final thoughts 

To wrap up the piece, we just want to say that you learned not only the websites to download TikTok videos without watermark. 

Obviously, watermarks may not always be a problem when you want to use the TikTok video downloader for personal use. For this purpose, we have shown you our secret way to download even when the button is disabled.

But for the times you don’t need the watermark, the list of 5 of the best TikTok video downloaders without watermark should take care of all your needs. 

Did you know that the recommendation system of TikTok has improved at recommending content? It is known that when a user opens up the app, they will stay for at least 10 minutes, which is three times longer than any other social media platform. 

This is a beast of a performance from a platform that only a few years ago was considered to be almost an outsider.  Nowadays, this social media platform has the largest engaged and active user base all over the globe. 

In this piece, we will do our best to give you a complete and detailed explanation of how the TikTok algorithm works so you could not only get more views and likes but followers in the long run. 

Also, we have a separate post counting 50 ways to get more TikTok followers that may be interesting to you if you want to expand your TikTok strategy up a bit.

The official explanation of the TikTok algorithm from ByteDance

“We build intelligent machines that are capable of understanding and analyzing the text, images, and videos using natural language processing and computer vision technology. This enables us to serve users with the content that they find most interesting and empower creators to share comments that matter in everyday life to a global audience” says the official spokesperson who adds to all this by stating that it is  powered by Artificial Intelligence.”

ByteDance

Now let us break this down into simple words. What the official spokesperson tried to say was that there is an AI at work. 

This may seem true to all the platforms, but when it comes to the TikTok algorithm, much like the platform itself, has been evolving and has been getting better day by day, week by week, and year by year. 

When it was newly released the algorithm differentiated from the other platforms with its simplicity and performance. 

As we may have mentioned at the beginning of the article, TikTok is no longer on the platform than any of its competitors. 

The main reason for this is the TikTok algorithm, mainly its recommendation system. We will explain how exactly this works later on. But the point we wanted to make here is that the algorithm works in the most simplistic ways while giving you and the viewers and us the most useful and beneficial outcomes. 

The way it works can be explained in the matter of a few steps which is very useful for the creators to understand, and each step has its own sort of internal steps or categories per se, which are rated from 1-10. 

What Things Does the Algorithm Pay Attention to?

Before we move into the steps of how the algorithm works exactly. Let us have a look at what information the AI looks for and what it finds important. 

There are three main things the AI sees: 

1. 1. The elements of content
   • – People:  faces, genders, clothes, 
   • – Things: cars, laptops, office, desks anything that is a thing 
   • – Space: background images, walls, doors, room, etcs.
2. 2. Audio 
   1. – Transcripts of the audio are generated for the AI to understand the content better. There is another AI at work here which is one – of the latest and the best voice recognition technologies in the world.
3. 4. Meta data
   1. – Title, 
   2. – Description, 
   3. – Hashtags/Keywords 

Now as an AI, the algorithm only takes a fraction of a second to look at all this information. What it does next is something that you should care about the most if you are looking to find out how the TikTok algorithm works. 

As you can see in the picture above, we have an example of what the AI sees. Now let us go ahead and talk about how this could be useful information for you and how to make use of what we now know. 

Content upload 

Once the Algorithm gets hold of all this information, the next step it takes is to show it to the people that it deems will be most interested.  

Since we are explaining the TikTok algorithm in detail, we will go over how that happens later in the piece for which you should keep reading if you want to find out.

Below is the lifecycle of each and every video that is posted on to the platform.  Regardless of the user, every single post goes through this cycle. 

Your aim, if you are trying to become an influencer should be to get stuck in the cycle and never get out.

This is what happens to the most viral videos. 

Video analysis 

The first stage is when the algorithm displays your video to a select few viewers. We say select few because those are not just random people. Those are the people with the record of watching a clip with similar characteristics. 

We know what information the TikTok algorithm has access to by now right? It’s those metadata, and the things, and the people inside. 

If a user watches a video with one or more similarities, they are likely to be recommended to watch similar videos. 

TikTok’s Algorithm does a better job here than most other social media platforms, even paying attention to the tiniest bit of information. It also works this way, because it seeks to provide the best user experience and keep the user on the platform for as long as possible. 

In this sense, the algorithm is helping the creators to get more views and more interactions. If anyone has ever told you that it is hard or the algorithm works against the creators, they are totally wrong. 

In fact, the TikTok algorithm is on your side and wishes to help you become popular and get more views, as a result of which more people will be coming to the platforms. 

However, it just is a heartless AI, thus, won’t care how many hours you put into a video, or how much you care about the topic you talk about. 

We know what the algorithm seeks by now. 

If you want to go viral, you should let the algorithm help you and create content that gets just views and interactions but does with a large audience and repeated times. 

Because once the video is released and is shown to the first group of people. What happens to your video is decided by those people, mostly. 

Audience analysis 

At this stage, the video is analyzed for a number of things. Do you remember the select few viewers?

This is how TikTok algorithm finds out those users.

Did you know that likes and comments are among the least regarded pointers for the algorithm these days? Despite the popular belief and what the many blogs constantly talk about, the likes and comments play little role in how the videos go viral.  

Below are the things that the TikTok algorithm analyses (rated from 1-10).

By rating and giving each stage a grade the algorithm is able to identify and rate the video.

• Rewatch rate = 10 points 
• Completion rate = 8 points 
• Shares, saves = 6 points 
• Comments = 4 points 
• Likes = 2 points 

You might be a bit surprised and think why is rewatch time the most graded thing?

You see, now there is more content on any of the social media platforms than ever before. Really, the number of videos, posts and likes outweigh the number of years the earth took to evolve.

This is a huge number, and the TikTok algorithm needs to cherry-pick only the best, only the best so that a user if ever opens up the app should not leave ever. This is the main goal of their AI.

What do the points mean?

TikTok is known to be home to new trends, challenges, etc. These usually take place and go as their life cycle tends to be short. 

If the video was to accrue multiple rewatches it would mean that this video is far more important than those that have a high rate of watch rate. It means these are the videos that start the challenges, trends, but at the same time are incredibly entertaining, or value-packed.

Because only such a video could be rewatched more than once. The best example of this is the most liked video on TikTok ever by Bella Poarch known as “M to the B” where she lip-syncs in a funny way. 

You could literally watch it multiple times and not get bored. It doesn’t have to be a video under the entertainment category. It can be anything or under any category as the TikTok Algorithm doesn’t discriminate. 

It just has to perform. So, your aim should be to make videos to get people to complete the video and watch it multiple times, if necessary.

Watch time and other pointers 

Watch time is the second most important pointer for the TikTok algorithm. If a user finished the video, which should be easier to accomplish compared to its biggest competitor YouTube, as TikTok’s video format is much shorter. 

This signals the algorithm that visitors are truly interested, and recommending to other people will likely yield the same results. 

This is why making a video that not just gets people to watch it but completes its cycle till the end is very important. 

The shares and the saves are the third most important pointer for the algorithm. Because this means the user is going out of their way to help the creator reach more views either from other people or by himself either by saving or sharing a video. 

This is a very strong indicator of how important this content is. 

Then, finally, it’s time for the algorithm to consider the likes and comments.  

It is true that they are important and a post is distributed far larger if it’s got many likes than the post without. But that ends as soon as the likes stop coming. 

Although how the TikTok algorithm works is no secret, since we know it always considers the same factors, humans don’t. One person from the initial distribution may like your video, while the next one may swipe up.

The shares and the saves are the third most important pointer for the algorithm. Because this means the user is going out of their way to help the creator reach more views either from other people or by himself either by saving or sharing a video. 

This is a very strong indicator of how important this content is. 

Then, finally, it’s time for the algorithm to consider the likes and comments.  

It is true that they are important and a post is distributed far larger if it’s got many likes than the post without. But that ends as soon as the likes stop coming. 

Although the algorithm works, in the same way, all the time, humans don’t. One person from the initial distribution may like your video, while the next one may swipe up.

Video performance analysis 

While the above may seem like a lot to consider for an algorithm, the time it takes is merely a fraction of a second as we have mentioned. 

In fact, within this fraction of a second, and in real-time, the TikTok algorithm keeps track of what happens with your video.

At this point, we know how the algorithm knows what the video is about, and how it formed for the first viewing experience. 

Depending on the results, the algorithm either repeats the processor ends the life of a video. 

Yet it gives the video one more chance to win the viewers over by showing it to other people with similar interests.

Obviously, even the ByteDance itself would not be able to see the difference between the first batch of people and the second batch as it is something that is totally up to the algorithm. 

How Does the Video End up on Your Screen ?

Now that we talked about the steps and the journey each video takes, let us now look at the same thing from the user’s point of view. 

Much like the life cycle of the video, the TikTok algorithm is pretty simple when you really understand it. 

The same algorithm we are trying to understand keeps track of every action of every single user.  Well, because you know the algorithm is smart but also because it needs to. 

The reason it needs to have all this information is to be able to serve you better.  The moment a user signs up, the algorithm gets to know the user, not by their name or last name, but more from their ID, and behavior. 

Do you remember the data it keeps on each video?

When it comes to the users it keeps the same data but from a different point of view. 

For example, as a user, you came across a video that you liked and watched till the end. Now the TikTok algorithm associates the details of the video with your recent activity. 

To make it even simpler, let us say, you watched that video we talked about earlier. In this video, the algorithm came to recognize two humans, females, laptops, coffees, and the faces looking at the screens of the laptops. 

Already, at this point, the algorithm can deduce that these two females looking at their laptops are probably working. It understands their behavior even better with the metadata, and the transcript of the dialogue. 

After all this information, AI understands that you like this and this kind of content. 

To make it even more simple and more graphic, we have made a picture like so below. 

How Does the Algorithm Decide What to Show You?

At this point, it should all be clear that the TikTok algorithm understands what you liked and what you did not like.

Just like with the posts, the AI rates the type of content that you rewatch as the one type that you are most interested in. 

This excludes the types of videos that you play on repeat. After all, the algorithm is pretty smart and knows that you are trying to trick it.

You might wonder how this idea works? 

Well, viral content gets to be played not on repeat but over and over after a period of time. 

For example, the same video we discussed a bit earlier. 

If you were to watch it and like it, you would most likely want to recommend it to other people right? At least to your friends. Even if as a recommendation or as a way to show, you would have to play it again. This counts as a rewatch.  

However, the TikTok algorithm also tracks the replays and rewatches up to only a few times. 

So, if you are playing something on repeat but only a few times, this also counts and is considered as the type of content you are interested in. 

The next type of content is as you already know the kind that you complete watching. The retention time is so high with TikTok that regular and active users spend about an hour a day on the platform. 

That is a long, long time for a platform that only features one to three-minute content. 

Although active users spend an hour, that doesn’t mean that they watch whatever comes up on their screen. They scroll up more often than any other social media platforms’ users. 

How TikTok algorithm matches the user to a video 

When the information about the user comes to the database. To match the user with the video, the algorithm only has to match as many similar interests as possible. 

By similar, we mean that if you watched a video with girls in it. The algorithm is more likely to recommend your videos to more girls. 

But this leaves out all the other necessary information that we talked about. Like the dialogue, space, and things. 

So, every time, it just matches as many similarities as possible. If you remember the lifecycle of each video on the TikTok platform. 

Then you may know that the first batch of people is usually the ones that will be more likely to be interested in that content. This is identified by the platforms’ observation of the behavior of a certain user.

There is one more important point to make here.  We know the TikTok algorithm keeps track of the activities of the user. Thus, it knows which type of videos you liked the most by analyzing the watch time, completion rate, and the saves, shares, comments, etc.

If a user was to rewatch something on how to tie a tie, the algorithm thinks that the user is really interested in learning about how to tie a tie. 

This is very useful for the content creator who has videos on this very topic because they get to be recommended to these people more often and with priority than other people with different content. 

But this has a specific drawback to the user. 

One big drawback of the Algorithm and how to leverage it

As a user, if you watched or rewatched a video this only means you probably were interested in that very video only. Well, you could be interested in the topic overall.

But taking from our example, you wouldn’t want to watch multiple videos on how to tie a tie all the time.

But the algorithm once you rewatch a video starts to think that you are interested in that type of content and keeps shoving it up on your screen. 

This is not helpful at all, because you already know how to tie a tie. This is something that the developers couldn’t fix yet, or probably won’t be able to fix for quite some time. 

Because this is what we call a human factor. The AI behind the TikTok algorithm does not know 100% what the human is going to do. 

Creators often abuse TikTok recommendation system

Although this may seem ill-advised, you can use the algorithms’ inability to recognize when viewers change their focus leveraging the human factors to your advantage.  

How?

By analyzing the types of videos the users are most interested in. 

You can find this out by analyzing the hashtags/keywords the users are looking for on the platform.

We have some content on this topic ready-made for you that you can read here. 

But you may now understand why all those blogs keep talking about hashtags, and titles and stuff. 

Although, they may not understand this is how a user gets to find your specific video, by helping the TikTok algorithm match your search intent with the creators’ content. 

You, on the other hand, by understanding the real AI behind the algorithm will be able to make better decisions and make going viral on TikTok the science it is supposed to be.

To Wrap Up 

Before we wrap it up, let us break down the steps of how the TikTok algorithm works with new videos. The steps we have already mentioned in this post.

1. A user posts the video and the details are recorded by the algorithm. 
2. A video is analyzed: transcript, meta data, things, spaces, etcs.
3. The audience is analyzed: AI keeps track of viewer’s reaction to see what is preferred.
4. Video performance analyzed: after the first distribution to the right audience, the algorithm looks at how many rewatches, complete watches, saves, shares etcs, it receives. 

These 4 steps are repeated a few times until the post totally runs out of the cycle.

When it comes to the video ending up on your screen, the algorithm does this three steps:

1. New user: after the person signs up, the algorithm tracks each and every activity and records it.
2. New clips are shown: they are determined by the time the user spends watching each post and by their reactions. 
3. New User data updates: every time the user starts to watch a slightly different content than the one that was recommended, the algorithm takes notice and adds to suggested content in the future.

If you like to find out more about TikTok and how to grow on TikTok check out our TikTok category.