We can't let you go viral; Bytedance is tight-lipped about the TikTok algorithm. But these techniques will make the use of the platform as a creator and audience more interesting and interesting.

Is 1 billion monthly active users wrong? Well, if social media has taught us anything, the answer is "possibly". But this does not deny the fact that the video sharing app TikTok has grown rapidly, thanks to its addictive never-ending short films.

Although TikTok's future was questioned in the United States last year, this threat seems to have ended, so the app from China's Bytedance went all out. The application is very intuitive; it provides a video carousel for you to enjoy. Swipe up to see the next (and next and next); like, favorite or follow to customize the experience. But there are some quirks to be aware of. Join while hot and use the following tips to stay influential.

When you encounter a TikTok, it promises to bring great rewards in the end, but the chattering at the beginning (TikTok now allows videos up to three minutes) is critical. Don't wait any longer or sit back and watch the whole thing. The white progress bar at the bottom of the longer TikTok video is also a slider. Place your fingertip on the moving white spot and drag it back and forth to scrub to the position you want. It seems to only work for videos that are at least 30 seconds long.

The inbox contains your account activity-who has seen or liked your content, who is following you, and who wants to follow you. Here, you can also receive direct messages from other TikTokers.

If you follow someone’s account on TikTok, their video will appear in a feed called "Follow." But the For You page (some call it FYP) is the magic of TikTok. FYP is a personalized feed created directly for you by an algorithm. It takes into account the videos you watch, the videos you skip, the people you follow, your favorite content, etc. No one knows exactly how it works, but many people will try to guess because its exposure in the For You feed sometimes leads to full-scale viral celebrities. TikTok is always reopened in For You, hoping to attract you to watch new creators you may still want to follow, all of which are to keep you fascinated by the app for longer and longer.

Visiting the live broadcast in the upper left corner will take you directly to the feeds of people who are streaming live to TikTok in real time. This gives you the opportunity to interact with the host of the video.

Why are there two magnifying glass icons on the Douyin interface? Because the metaphor of search obviously can only be represented by that one. The difference here is that the mag-glass in the upper right corner is used to directly search for content. Click on the search term and you will see the most important results, username, video, sound, and most important hashtags that can be narrowed down.

The mag-glass in the toolbar below is not like that. It is called "discovery" and aims to expose you to a lot of new content that you don't know you want. However, using the search box on the "Discover" page will still show the same search results as above, so it seems that the second magnifying glass is wasted.

If you don’t want the world to know your preferences, please make them private. Go to profile> hamburger menu> privacy and scroll to favorite videos. Set it to who can watch the videos you like: only me.

Use icons: like (click on your heart; click again on dislike), comment (click on the balloon icon) or share (via SMS, internal TikTok messages, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) and share arrows. Find the video you like again in your profile. Press and hold your finger to bring up the menu to report, send to a friend, favorite or save the video to your camera roll (if allowed by the creator).

What is the difference between favorite and favorite? Like to be the same as what you see on social media such as Facebook-it increases the chances of the video being viewed and provides motivation for creators. Favorites are for you to visit again later, without giving creators the same increase in traffic-for example, if you don’t like creators but want to follow them closely.

You can access "Favorites" from your profile page by clicking the bookmark icon next to "Edit profile". You will see a menu that also provides access to favorite hashtags, sounds, video effects, and even products (if any). (TikTok and some influential people will definitely want you to do this.)

You can easily set up multiple accounts under the "Profile" button in the lower right corner. Once on the page, click the name of the existing profile at the top, and then click Add account. When creating an account, you need a unique phone, email or username, or you can log in with an existing Facebook, Apple, or Google account. Click the name at the top later to easily switch accounts. There can be up to five per application. Mashable has a complete tutorial on this topic.

But please note that if you set up multiple accounts in one application, your account may be marked as a corporate account. This means that the account is more about bringing traffic to the business through real-time analysis and metrics, rather than entertainment or influence (although you can also get analysis and metrics on the Creator account). Business accounts can access more music through TikTok's commercial music library. You can always switch your regular Creator account to a corporate account in the "Profile" menu under "Manage Account".

Find it in "Profile"> "Hamburger" menu> "Data Protection Program". It does exactly what it says. If you use a cellular network connection with a data plan, the video downloads at a lower resolution and takes longer, all in the name of retaining the data. Once you re-use Wi-Fi, everything will be restored to full quality and speed.

Many TikTok videos use the same audio. This is reminiscent of its early incarnation, Musical.ly, which is about people lip dubbing songs. This is still a big part of TikTok's fun-watching people make creative videos (or remake videos) with classic audio, whether it's songs, dialogues, comedy clips, etc. When people do this on TikTok, the audio will be at the bottom of the screen, letting you know the true origin.

You can search for the audio usage in other videos. Click the rotation record icon on the right. You will see a page showing the original (if it is still available) and all subsequent videos that use it, even if it is in Duet. Share or favorite audio to find or use in the future. There is an icon you can click to use it yourself in the new video. More on that below.

This is the QR code that leads to your TikTok account. You can share with others for scanning, and they can access your content immediately. Find it via "Profile"> "Hamburger Menu"> "QR Code". You can download, send or share it, post it to other social media, you can name it whatever you want. If your tattoo artist can handle precise pointillism, you can even tattoo it on your arm. Anyone who has the TikTok app can scan it by going to "Discover" and clicking on the scanning tool in the upper right corner.

Maybe you don't want to read what people are saying. If the closed captions were created through the TikTok app itself (see below), you can do so. Click on subtitles during playback to see closed captioning options; they are reduced to a small icon above the TikToker name. Click it again to restore the subtitles. If the person uses different software for the subtitles, or laboriously enters them manually, you cannot cancel seeing them (technically, this makes them open-ended subtitles).

Have questions for video creators? Comments on TikTok abound, but you can designate comments as direct questions for people with public creator accounts (and corporate accounts) to attract their attention. When commenting, click the text balloon icon with a question mark. Creators can even use it as a springboard to give new video answers to your questions. To open Q&A, go to Profile> Hamburger Menu> Creator Tools. This option is also available when you are watching a live video; the creator of the broadcast will see the question in real time on their chat feed.

You can access TikTok on your desktop computer via tiktok.com. It will send you a four-digit login code to the phone number of your mobile phone, or you can choose a password to log in. It gives you access to all the videos found in For You and Follow and Live, as well as messages and inboxes for contacting others.

Although the desktop browser version of TikTok is not really geared toward creating videos—the TikTok.com website lacks any video capture or editing tools—but it does provide an option to upload videos. This way, if you prefer to use high-end tools such as Adobe Premiere to make professional-grade videos on your computer, you can use the service more easily. If you want people to be able to perform duets, splicing, or comments, please tag them. Another option is to make videos on your PC, save them to storage sites such as Google Drive or Dropbox, and then save them to your phone for uploading. Remember-you cannot edit the video after publishing. Other restrictions: The video must be in MP4 or WebM format with a resolution higher than 720 x 1,280.

Videos used to be limited to 15 seconds, which is about the length of time most people can follow. If you record locally on the app, you can now record up to three minutes. However, unless you are making a step-by-step video or you are the funniest talk show comedian, don't do it.

If you think that the TikTok app itself is very limited in terms of video editing capabilities, then the next step before you use Adobe Premiere etc. is CapCut. More importantly, the app (available for iOS and Android) was made by the creator of TikTok itself, ByteDance. However, you don't need a TikTok account to use it. However, it does support direct export to TikTok, and more options, such as a 15-minute video limit (of course, it must be three minutes or less to use the TikTok service). Read our full review.

Make your account private so that only followers you allow can see your posts. Or make it public so that the world can see your content. If you do this, you cannot control who follows you. Switch back and forth by going to "Profile"> "Hamburger Menu"> "Privacy" and turning it on or off.

Closed captioning brings a different world to the hearing impaired and helps anyone watch TikTok videos at a lower volume (you must do this when watching in the bathroom to avoid judgment). The application can automatically generate your audio transcription and make subtitles on the fly. Just click on the subtitles at the bottom after recording. You will see a preview, and if you see an error, you can edit it line by line. The editor provides the option to delete transcribed words, which sometimes mark content, whether it's a full curse or a simple suggestion. This is why people sometimes refer to "seggsuality" in services. It's fun to replace words with emojis. Please note that transcription does not seem to be suitable for singing.

You can drag the automatically generated subtitles to the top or bottom of the video, but you cannot format them in any way. However, you can use the text tool to enter your own open captions in various fonts, colors, and alignments (they cannot be hidden, they are "burned" into the video). Just set a different duration for each text segment so that it corresponds to the sound in the video. This is a lot of work, but it looks better.

There are many simpler third-party applications that can handle transcription and more beautiful subtitles on the fly, such as Captions (iOS) and AutoCap (iOS and Android). Make a video with beautiful subtitles and upload it to TikTok. However, if you want to use any of TikTok's effects on video or audio, you will be bothered by TikTok's more boring subtitles.

The text-to-speech option puts the female robot voice in your video, so it will speak for you. Create a video, click on the text, and enter the content. Then click on the text again and select text-to-speech. Now, when the text appears on the screen, the robot voice will process the voice-over. Set the duration of the text so you can have the robot describe it as it appears in different parts of the video. If you want to close the call, tap the text again.

If you are tired of any extra elements placed on the video, such as stickers or some text, you can just drag it up to the top of the screen. The trash can appears marked as deleted. Just put the element on the jar to get rid of it.

You often see Stitch on TikTok-this refers to the creator taking cuts from other people's videos, and then adding his own video at the end, usually as a reaction to what he has done or said. To do this, click the "Share" arrow icon on the video, select "Stitching", select the 5 seconds of the other person's video you want to use through the bottom slider, and click "Next" at the top, and you will see the recording screen. But the video time of other creators has been allocated in the top bar. Record as usual, click the check mark, add effects and filters as needed, click Next, add titles and tags, and publish. If needed, you can also mark the video to allow splicing. Let them stitch and roll. (Stitch and Duet are only available if your account is public and not private.)

##duet and @failarmy are another reason to avoid golf ##golf ##duet ##closeup ##beardo

Another major content of TikTok’s collaborative spirit is Duet, where you can record videos that play side-by-side with other people’s videos so that you can react or even pretend to “interact” with them. It works very similarly to Stitch-select a video, click Share> Duet, use all common tools to record the video, add some filters, text, stickers, etc., and click Next to publish it. You can even allow the use of your Duet for Duet. Click "Layout" before recording to reorient the Duet so that it faces the top and bottom instead of the left and right, and other options.

When you start recording a video, click the speed icon on the right. You will see options to record at 0.3x, 0.5x, 1x (normal speed), 2x and 3x speeds on the screen. If you choose the first two, you are actually recording in slow motion. The latter two are twice or three times faster. Why are you doing this? Depends on your video, but super-speed continuous shooting is fun to show the super-latency of a long and long project (although for very long things, you might better use an app like Instagram’s Hyperlapse, where You can adjust the speed and upload it to TikTok later). For example, it is interesting to record people's Duet reactions at different speeds.

What's more interesting is that using any pre-recorded video on your phone, you can upload it to TikTok and assign it a new slower or faster speed based on how you use it.

When you record a video on TikTok, you will see a color effect icon with two colors of leaves on the bottom left. You can use it to access many filter effects used in real-time during recording, including green screen and stop motion animation (see below for more information) and more.

However, you can also add post-recording effects. After you finish recording, but before you click Next to finish, there is a second black and white effect icon (at the bottom below) on the screen where you can insert text, titles, and stickers. Tap this button and you will have plenty of possibilities, from visual effects (adding smoke, fireworks, snow, etc.) to transitions, split cameras, and time effects, such as reversing or repeating a video.

Try all the auxiliary effects you want; you can click Cancel at any time to discard the effects and return to the original recording.

Stickers are another post-recording effect you can apply. They are exactly what they sound like-images and emojis, all provided by TikTok, and you can paste them on the video for any length of time you like. There is very little interest.

Voting: Lets you insert a vote of two answers on the video

Magnifier: Insert a floating magnifier on the video to highlight certain content.

Remove background: It will take your photo with something in the foreground and remove the background, so the foreground image can be used as your sticker alone.

Giphy GIF: The search at the top of the "stickers" page literally means "search for GIF", so you can find suitable animations from Giphy to insert into your video.

Many stickers are animated, some are editable, and you can usually set a duration to appear in the video. In this way, the stickers will not compete with content such as subtitles.

The green screen-where you place the image or the entire video "behind" the video-can be found under Effects, on the standard video recording screen accessed via the + button. You will see trending effects, some of which are specific to the time of the year; scroll to the left and you will enter a green screen. There are many changes, it is difficult to distinguish them without trying all of them, but the most basic ones have this icon.

Choose a picture from your photo library. You will see yourself and then superimpose on the picture. If the wall behind you is blank (but it doesn't have to be green), the effect will be much better.

There are many changes in the content and methods of green screens. There is even a combined green screen/duo function now, so you can superimpose yourself on other videos. To do this, start Duet as described above, but click the "Layout" icon to select "Green Scene". Mashable has a complete green screen tutorial.

Another interesting effect is to make a frame-by-frame stop motion animation. When making a new video, enter the effect. Look for the icon that shows stop motion animation. (You may not find it. TikTok does a terrible job of making the effect icon easy to find. Instead, go to "Search" and type "Stop Motion Animation Effect" and it should appear at the top. Click on it, then add bookmark Use it later.)

You need to make sure that your phone is as stable as possible, maybe on a tripod. Click to create a video, and then select a stop motion animation, or from Profile> Favorites> Effects> Stop Motion, click to try this effect. You will get a new start screen that shows the spelling of the animation you clicked for each new frame, and then click Record at the bottom again when you're done to see the finished animation.

You must open Analytics-it will not automatically open for a personal Creator account. Go to Profile> hamburger menu> Creator Tools> Analytics and open it. Any videos you upload before this time will not exceed the number of views. After the fact, you will get more detailed information, including being able to go to the "Content" tab, click on a specific video that has been playing for more than 24 hours, and see if it has ever landed on the For You page to really enhance your presence. (Don’t hold your breath, Chester.)

Well, this is a million-dollar question that we cannot fully answer because the alchemy, talent, hard work, and sheer luck of algorithms cannot be quantified here. Although many other articles on the Internet will try.

You can always hope that the audience will give you TikTok coins, which are virtual currency of the app that users can buy during the live broadcast and give you as a gift. 100 coins are priced at US$1.29, and more can be purchased at a discount (10,000 coins can be up to US$134.99). Check your balance in "Profile"> "Hamburger" menu> "Balance". But this will not make you rich, especially if you will never be online.

What we can tell you is that there is a TikTok Creator Fund, which is used by the service to distribute funds to video creators that bring in a large number of views. But to join it, you must maintain a steady 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 video views in the last month. And you must be at least 18 years old. Otherwise, you'd better look for your internet celebrity cash elsewhere.

Do you have a favorite TikTok tip that we missed? Share your impact in the comments below.

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Eric has been writing about technology for 28 years. He is a founding team member of Windows Sources, FamilyPC and Access Internet Magazine (all disbanded, it is not his fault). He is the author of two novels, BETA TEST (an unusually relaxing doomsday story-Publisher Weekly) and KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. He works at his home in Ithaca, New York.

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