TikTok

Every self-respecting app has a dark mode, so why should TikTok be any different? Especially given that it's the sort of app you could end up scrolling through endlessly at 2 a.m. in the morning. Any respite from that blinding white interface is likely to be welcomed by your poor bleary eyes, which is why it's always a good idea to turn on TikTok's Dark mode. That said, it's worth noting ...

TikTok is rolling out new direct messaging features including "highly requested" group chats with support for up to 32 people, the company has announced. Group chats allow users aged 16 and over to share and comment on TikTok videos with friends and family members without having to open a separate messaging app like WhatsApp or Messenger. Starting a group chat can be done in a couple of...

The United States Department of Justice today sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA makes it illegal for websites to collect, use, and disclose data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent. The lawsuit [PDF] alleges that from 2019 on, TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create TikTok...

TikTok this week announced that it has started automatically labeling AI-generated content created on third-party platforms, preventing AI images and videos from confusing and misleading viewers. Content made using TikTok's AI creation tools has included an AI label for more than a year, but going forward, TikTok will also label AI images made through other platforms. TikTok's tool will read ...

TikTok parent company ByteDance today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in an effort to put a stop to the bill requiring TikTok to be sold off to a non-Chinese company in a matter of months, or face a U.S. ban. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that passed in April requires ByteDance to divest its TikTok ownership within nine months, with...

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that will either ban TikTok from app stores operating in the country or force Chinese company ByteDance to sell the short-form video app. The landmark bill has now passed both chambers of Congress, having already been approved by the House of Representatives. President Biden says he will sign the bill into law on Wednesday. Once that...

The U.S. House of Representatives today approved legislation that would force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media network or face a ban in the United States. The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act will now go to the Senate, where its fate is unclear. U.S. lawmakers want TikTok to be sold to a company outside of China due to concerns that the...

TikTok appears to be planning to expand into photo sharing via the launch of a new "TikTok Photos" app, according to TheSpAndroid blog. A large number of references to the app were discovered in the latest version of TikTok, revealing some of its functionality, integrations, and even its app icon. Among these, phrases like "Open TikTok Photos," "Get TikTok Photos," and "Share this post to...

TikTok today announced that it has released an app for Apple's Vision Pro headset. The app is optimized for visionOS's spatial design style, with TikTok promising a more "immersive" viewing experience for its short-form videos. "Experience your For You feed in an entirely new way through this immersive content view," said TikTok, in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as...

TikTok today launched its new "Add to Music App" feature with support for Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. The feature allows users to directly save songs they find on TikTok to their preferred music streaming service library via an Add Song button located beside the track name at the bottom of a TikTok video. Users can also use the Add to Music App feature from an artist's Sound...

New York City has decided to ban TikTok from city-owned devices used by NYC employees, reports The Verge. The New York City Cyber Command said that TikTok is a "security threat to the city's technical networks." City employees are no longer allowed to download or use the TikTok app on city-owned devices, and they are also not allowed to access the TikTok website. New York state previously...

TikTok has announced it is introducing support for passkeys, providing an easier and more secure login method for users of the popular short-form video platform. Apple integrated passkeys into iOS with the launch of iOS 16, and they are also available in iPadOS 16.1 and later and macOS Ventura. Passkeys are an industry standard developed by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web...

The Biden administration is reportedly demanding that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their stake in the short-form video sharing app or it could face a possible U.S. ban. First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the demand is said to have come from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., a multiagency federal task force that oversees national-security risks in cross-border...

United States Senator Michael Bennet today penned a letter to the chief executives of Apple and Google demanding that they ban Chinese-owned TikTok from their app stores on national security grounds (via The New York Times). Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent the letter to Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai, saying that no company...

TikTok's custom in-app browser on iOS reportedly injects JavaScript code into external websites that allows TikTok to monitor "all keyboard inputs and taps" while a user is interacting with a given website, according to security researcher Felix Krause, but TikTok has reportedly denied that the code is used for malicious reasons. Krause said TikTok's in-app browser "subscribes" to all...

No, Apple is not giving away free AirPods, despite what you may be seeing on your TikTok "For You" page. In the last several weeks, hundreds of videos have spawned on TikTok claiming that Apple is giving away free AirPods replacement as long as you simply walk into an Apple Store and ask for a new free pair. The trend implies that "AirPods" users can walk into an ‌Apple Store‌, claim their...

TikTok has announced new content moderation tools for the short-form video platform to make it safer for children, along with new hashtag filters for its For You and Following feeds. The first version of its new system to restrict certain types of content from being viewed by teens is called "Content Levels," which is due to launch in the next few weeks. While adult content is banned on...

TikTok is working on a plan to better safeguard the data of its U.S. users, the company said in an open letter [PDF] to several U.S. Senators that have expressed concern that the China-based app is a national security risk. Shared by The New York Times, the letter outlines a multi-pronged undertaking called "Project Texas," aimed at strengthening data security. TikTok says that 100 percent...

The Federal Communications Commission has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores because of its "pattern of surreptitious data practices," reports TechCrunch. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is said to have written to Apple and Google on Tuesday to make the request, which comes after a BuzzFeed News report last week claimed TikTok staff in China have had access to U.S....

TikTok is rolling out the ability for users to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes long, an increase from the previous 3-minute time limit imposed on the app, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch. TikTok has been testing out the feature for several months and is now slowly rolling it out to all users. TikTok has had a history of increasing the maximum time length for videos on the app ...

TikTok has become the first non-Facebook app to reach three billion downloads worldwide across iOS and Android, according to Sensor Tower. Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals that the app, including its Chinese iOS version called Douyin, was the most downloaded and highest-grossing non-game app globally in the first half of 2021, reaching 383 million first-time installs and an...