Your TikTok Feed, Your Rules: New Features Put You in Control

TikTok has introduced new features on its popular social media platform to give users more control over what content they see.

The features will help millions of users explore their interests, discover new creators and offer a more personalised For You feed, which defines the TikTok experience.

Adam Presser, Head of Operations & Trust & Safety at TikTok says the For You feed is what makes TikTok a place like no other to discover your favourite new interests or grow a thriving community.

“With our new features, you can manage topics you want to see in your For You feed and limit keywords and hashtags you’d rather skip, so that it’s easier than ever to find creators, hobbies, and content you love,” says Presser.

According to TikTok, the new updates include:

Manage Topics

A new feature that allows users to customize how frequently they see content related to over 10 popular topics, including Creative Arts, Travel, Nature, and Sports. With just a few taps, users can shape their For You feed to better reflect their unique interests.

These settings won’t eliminate any topics entirely, but can influence how often they’re recommended as peoples’ interests evolve over time. This makes it even easier for communities to discover new topics and creators that they love.

Smart Keyword Filtering

TikTok has introduced a new Smart Keyword Filter, a technology-driven setting that expands filtering to include synonyms and related terms, helping users filter a broader range of content more effectively. The enhanced feature will help users easily limit content they may want to avoid or see less of in their feeds.

To give people more fine-grained ways to shape their experience in the months to come, TikTok will also be doubling the number of keywords users can include to 200, making it easier to add keywords in bulk, and enabling people to see and select which related keywords they want included in the Smart filtering.

TikTok’s custom keyword filters have long helped users tailor their feed by limiting content that includes specific words or phrases. This tool has been used more than 190 million times by our global community.

Empowering through education

As part of continuous effort to help people understand how the For You feed works, TikTok is also launching a new educational guide which empowers people with tips and tools to understand and shape their feeds in one easy place. The guide will include features that show why content was recommended, and educational videos that have received over 180 million views around the world.

The new updates are eligible for both adult and teen accounts, which builds on tools and safeguards that have helped users experience the best For You feed. These include:

• Applying strict For You feed eligibility standards to restrict content that isn’t appropriate for a general audience from recommendation in For You feeds, and working to prevent content with mature or complex themes from reaching teens through Content Levels.
• Offering additional For You feed tools to help people refresh their For You feed, indicate they’re “not interested” in a video or turn on Restricted Mode to further limit content that may not be comfortable for broad audiences.
• Taking steps to interrupt frequent recommendations of some types of content that may be problematic if seen too often.

TikTok says these updates will further empower audiences to explore, learn and discover content and creators they love.