The smartest function of TikTok
A product designer’s look into why this app is so successful
As we all know, TikTok blew up over the last couple of months. Whether you heard about it through friends, other social media or the news (did people not know all social media collects your data? Whatever, that’s a whole other story), you can’t deny it’s popularity. It currently sits at the number 3 spot on the App Store Top Charts with a 4.7 star rating from 7.5M reviews. SEVEN AND A HALF MILLION REVIEWS. And this source states that is has 800M active users.
My idea about TikTok was that it’s only Gen Z uploading videos of them doing the same dance over and over again. So I dragged my feet and refused to download it. But I started to notice something; while scrolling through the discover page on Instagram, I was seeing more and more TikTok videos. And let me be honest, they are absolutely hilarious and more diverse than my previous thought.
So it took a few nudges from friends but I officially downloaded TikTok last week. I was honestly super curious about the UX Design.
How did they make it so addictive? Did they use dark patterns? What are they doing right??
I was originally going to write a blog post about the whole experience of downloading the app, creating an account and what it’s like to use. And while I was screenshotting my experience, one thing stood out to me. It made me think “Wow this is genius. Why don’t other social media apps include this?”
They make sharing your content across different social media accounts so easy! Now it makes sense on why I was seeing so many TikTok videos on Instagram.
This is great for the users and for business. If users are spending time creating content, it’s safe to assume they want to share it and have it seen! The ability to easily share on their IG stories makes it readily available for those (reluctant) friends to watch also.
And so so clever for business. TikTok is slowly taking over the other social media platforms by allowing their users to infiltrate their content across the board.
While Instagram does have share options, it’s pretty hidden. You have to find the post, click on the three dots, hit share, then chose how to share it. But oh, where you looking to share under your stories? That’s in a different area.
Allowing easy sharing is great, free marketing for the business and will make your content creaters happy!
