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Free and futuristic social media platform for mobile users featuring viral 15-second video clip uploads

Free and futuristic social media platform for mobile users featuring viral 15-second video clip uploads

Vote: (1,727 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: TikTok Pte. Ltd.

Version: 29.3.4

Works under: Android

Also available for Windows

Vote:

Program license

(1,727 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

TikTok Pte. Ltd.

29.3.4

Works under:

Also available for

Android

Windows

TikTok® is a registered trademark of Bytedance Limited. Download.it is not affiliated, sponsored, authorized or otherwise associated by/with Bytedance or its associated companies.

Pros

  • Videos are incredibly easy to create, and this has allowed for the proliferation of high quality and highly humorous videos.
  • TikTok is constantly unveiling new editing features that allow users to find more and more content.
  • The app has become more engaged in promoting videos that provide useful information, enabling followers of certain interests to enrich their lives.
  • It's Safety Center has been found to be generally helpful in getting out useful information on how to control the kind of content that is typically available on the App.
  • It is easy to find videos that users are interested in, enabling them to easily identify more and more content that they will wind up liking.
  • Integration with TikTok and other apps is easy, making it easy to create and share content over a wide array of networks.

Cons

  • Privacy concerns are rampant, more so than they have been on previous social media apps. As a result, many have avoided the app, sighting fear of how their personal information may be used or compromised.
  • The app has initiated a series of broader concerns over its sustainability, including fears of addiction and shrinking attention span.
  • Like other social networks, the app has been tied to a rise of false news and other inaccurate information, particularly as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TikTok is one of the hottest social media programs on the market today. It is consistently in the top downloaded apps and has become almost ubiquitous in its presence, with popular creations from the app being available almost anywhere.

TikTok now has over 850 million users, making it one of the largest social networks available today. The majority of TikTok users use the app via an iPhone, and its popularity has helped spawn a wide array of new celebrities, just like Vine before it. Fortunately, the app is also available via a desktop computer, and many users have found that it is easier to browse and create on their computer, rather than their phone.

How TikTok Works

TikTok has numerous features that allow users to edit and insert video clips, graphics, audio tracks, and more. These features are all relatively easy to operate, even for people who are not technologically inclined. Formats and editing options include:

- The ability to insert a variety of types of music into a video, enabling users to add audio to their track.
- Pre-recorded filters and graphics that can be inserted creatively. For example, popular content at the moment include people who film a video with text above their heads. Those users then jump back and forth to indicate which of the text they currently agree with. When synced to music, this can allow for a very creative type of video.
- Editing filters or formats that can be easily controlled. Videos can be sped up or slowed down. Furthermore, the network is constantly adding new editing formats. Examples include the React format, which allows users to film their reaction to other videos, or the Duet format, which allows users to film side-by-side with another user. The creative potential for both of these formats is virtually unlimited.

Users can then share the content of videos they like, favorite the content, or comment on it.

Finding Content

Users can search out popular videos, subscribe to content creators, and search via genre or category. From there, a "For You" page will populate, enabling users to find more content that they like, based on the videos that they follow. Furthermore, like all social networks today, there are hashtags that can be searched, enabling users to easily find content based on current trends.

Like many other social networks, TikTok has unveiled a swiping mechanism in order to allow users to easily switch between videos. This is highly intuitive, but also extremely addictive, and that has been flagged as one of the apps potential problems.

For all of the emphasis on the creation of viral content via the app, there has been no shortage of genuinely useful information on TikTok, including cooking, home improvement tips, workout routines, pet care, and more. Indeed, many have turned to the app as a way of finding out more information about their interests or hobbies, and TikTok has learned into this trend, changing their advertising to highlight the spread of this information.

Controversies

Like virtually all social networks, TikTok is not without its controversies, some of which have spawned more severe government actions and bans.

One of the largest controversies with TikTok has been those related to privacy. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, and there have been an array of concerns that the App is being used in order to gain access to sensitive personal information. These concerns have been noted by many commenters, including Steve Huffman, the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, who referred to the App as "parasitic," and warned people not to install the app.

These controversies escalated to literal national security concerns, with President Trump ultimately signing two Executive Orders that ordered ByteDance to sell the app or it would not be allowed to be downloaded in the United States. The basis for the order was national security concerns, and these were assumed to be related to the lack of privacy controls in the App. Legal concerns are still ongoing as it relates to these orders, but the fears over privacy violations are very, very real - even more so than most other social media apps.

The United States is not the only country that has attempted to regulate the app, with other countries having attempted to ban the App, including Indonesia and Pakistan. However, in many cases, bans executed by these countries pertained more to concerns over the type of content being produced, not privacy concerns.

The app doesn't allow for adult content or pornography, but that's not to say that it doesn't sometimes appear on the app. As a result of these issues, TikTok recently unveiled a parental control suite of options. These could limit the types of content that underage users saw, as well as create screen time limitations. It has also unveiled a Safety Center that lists information on how to report videos, find accurate information, access parental controls, and more.

There have also been concerns related to the use of TikTok as it pertains to the spread of "fake news." For example, many creators used TikTok to promulgate false information about the spread and "cures" for COVID. TikTok has begun to crack down on these issues by removing some videos and adding accurate information about the disease.

Pros

  • Videos are incredibly easy to create, and this has allowed for the proliferation of high quality and highly humorous videos.
  • TikTok is constantly unveiling new editing features that allow users to find more and more content.
  • The app has become more engaged in promoting videos that provide useful information, enabling followers of certain interests to enrich their lives.
  • It's Safety Center has been found to be generally helpful in getting out useful information on how to control the kind of content that is typically available on the App.
  • It is easy to find videos that users are interested in, enabling them to easily identify more and more content that they will wind up liking.
  • Integration with TikTok and other apps is easy, making it easy to create and share content over a wide array of networks.

Cons

  • Privacy concerns are rampant, more so than they have been on previous social media apps. As a result, many have avoided the app, sighting fear of how their personal information may be used or compromised.
  • The app has initiated a series of broader concerns over its sustainability, including fears of addiction and shrinking attention span.
  • Like other social networks, the app has been tied to a rise of false news and other inaccurate information, particularly as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.