The TikTok algorithm has been explained and chewed up and down so many times to only leave the information complicated and hard to understand.
Did you know that the recommendation system of TikTok has improved at recommending content? It is known that when a user opens up the app, they will stay for at least 10 minutes, which is three times longer than any other social media platform.
This is a beast of a performance from a platform that only a few years ago was considered to be almost an outsider. Nowadays, this social media platform has the largest engaged and active user base all over the globe.
In this piece, we will do our best to give you a complete and detailed explanation of how the TikTok algorithm works so you could not only get more views and likes but followers in the long run.
📌 Also, we have a separate post counting 50 ways to get more TikTok followers that may be interesting to you if you want to expand your TikTok strategy up a bit.
The official explanation of the TikTok algorithm from ByteDance
“We build intelligent machines that are capable of understanding and analyzing the text, images, and videos using natural language processing and computer vision technology. This enables us to serve users with the content that they find most interesting and empower creators to share comments that matter in everyday life to a global audience” says the official spokesperson who adds to all this by stating that it is powered by Artificial Intelligence.”
ByteDance
Now let us break this down into simple words. What the official spokesperson tried to say was that there is an AI at work.
This may seem true to all the platforms, but when it comes to the TikTok algorithm, much like the platform itself, has been evolving and has been getting better day by day, week by week, and year by year.
When it was newly released the algorithm differentiated from the other platforms with its simplicity and performance.
As we may have mentioned at the beginning of the article, TikTok is no longer on the platform than any of its competitors.
The main reason for this is the TikTok algorithm, mainly its recommendation system. We will explain how exactly this works later on. But the point we wanted to make here is that the algorithm works in the most simplistic ways while giving you and the viewers and us the most useful and beneficial outcomes.
The way it works can be explained in the matter of a few steps which is very useful for the creators to understand, and each step has its own sort of internal steps or categories per se, which are rated from 1-10.
What Things Does the Algorithm Pay Attention to?
Before we move into the steps of how the algorithm works exactly. Let us have a look at what information the AI looks for and what it finds important.
There are three main things the AI sees:
- 1. The elements of content
- – People: faces, genders, clothes,
- – Things: cars, laptops, office, desks anything that is a thing
- – Space: background images, walls, doors, room, etcs.
- 2. Audio
- – Transcripts of the audio are generated for the AI to understand the content better. There is another AI at work here which is one – of the latest and the best voice recognition technologies in the world.
- 4. Meta data
- – Title,
- – Description,
- – Hashtags/Keywords
Now as an AI, the algorithm only takes a fraction of a second to look at all this information. What it does next is something that you should care about the most if you are looking to find out how the TikTok algorithm works.
As you can see in the picture above, we have an example of what the AI sees. Now let us go ahead and talk about how this could be useful information for you and how to make use of what we now know.
Content upload
Once the Algorithm gets hold of all this information, the next step it takes is to show it to the people that it deems will be most interested.
Since we are explaining the TikTok algorithm in detail, we will go over how that happens later in the piece for which you should keep reading if you want to find out.
Below is the lifecycle of each and every video that is posted on to the platform. Regardless of the user, every single post goes through this cycle.
Your aim, if you are trying to become an influencer should be to get stuck in the cycle and never get out.
This is what happens to the most viral videos.
Video analysis
The first stage is when the algorithm displays your video to a select few viewers. We say select few because those are not just random people. Those are the people with the record of watching a clip with similar characteristics.
We know what information the TikTok algorithm has access to by now right? It’s those metadata, and the things, and the people inside.
If a user watches a video with one or more similarities, they are likely to be recommended to watch similar videos.
TikTok’s Algorithm does a better job here than most other social media platforms, even paying attention to the tiniest bit of information. It also works this way, because it seeks to provide the best user experience and keep the user on the platform for as long as possible.
In this sense, the algorithm is helping the creators to get more views and more interactions. If anyone has ever told you that it is hard or the algorithm works against the creators, they are totally wrong.
In fact, the TikTok algorithm is on your side and wishes to help you become popular and get more views, as a result of which more people will be coming to the platforms.
However, it just is a heartless AI, thus, won’t care how many hours you put into a video, or how much you care about the topic you talk about.
We know what the algorithm seeks by now.
If you want to go viral, you should let the algorithm help you and create content that gets just views and interactions but does with a large audience and repeated times.
Because once the video is released and is shown to the first group of people. What happens to your video is decided by those people, mostly.
Audience analysis
At this stage, the video is analyzed for a number of things. Do you remember the select few viewers?
This is how TikTok algorithm finds out those users.
Did you know that likes and comments are among the least regarded pointers for the algorithm these days? Despite the popular belief and what the many blogs constantly talk about, the likes and comments play little role in how the videos go viral.
Below are the things that the TikTok algorithm analyses (rated from 1-10).
By rating and giving each stage a grade the algorithm is able to identify and rate the video.
- ✔️ Rewatch rate = 10 points
- ✔️ Completion rate = 8 points
- ✔️ Shares, saves = 6 points
- ✔️Comments = 4 points
- ✔️ Likes = 2 points
You might be a bit surprised and think why is rewatch time the most graded thing?
You see, now there is more content on any of the social media platforms than ever before. Really, the number of videos, posts and likes outweigh the number of years the earth took to evolve.
This is a huge number, and the TikTok algorithm needs to cherry-pick only the best, only the best so that a user if ever opens up the app should not leave ever. This is the main goal of their AI.
What do the points mean?
TikTok is known to be home to new trends, challenges, etc. These usually take place and go as their life cycle tends to be short.
If the video was to accrue multiple rewatches it would mean that this video is far more important than those that have a high rate of watch rate. It means these are the videos that start the challenges, trends, but at the same time are incredibly entertaining, or value-packed.
Because only such a video could be rewatched more than once. The best example of this is the most liked video on TikTok ever by Bella Poarch known as “M to the B” where she lip-syncs in a funny way.
You could literally watch it multiple times and not get bored. It doesn’t have to be a video under the entertainment category. It can be anything or under any category as the TikTok Algorithm doesn’t discriminate.
It just has to perform. So, your aim should be to make videos to get people to complete the video and watch it multiple times, if necessary.
Watch time and other pointers
Watch time is the second most important pointer for the TikTok algorithm. If a user finished the video, which should be easier to accomplish compared to its biggest competitor YouTube, as TikTok’s video format is much shorter.
This signals the algorithm that visitors are truly interested, and recommending to other people will likely yield the same results.
This is why making a video that not just gets people to watch it but completes its cycle till the end is very important.
The shares and the saves are the third most important pointer for the algorithm. Because this means the user is going out of their way to help the creator reach more views either from other people or by himself either by saving or sharing a video.
This is a very strong indicator of how important this content is.
Then, finally, it’s time for the algorithm to consider the likes and comments.
It is true that they are important and a post is distributed far larger if it’s got many likes than the post without. But that ends as soon as the likes stop coming.
Although how the TikTok algorithm works is no secret, since we know it always considers the same factors, humans don’t. One person from the initial distribution may like your video, while the next one may swipe up.
The shares and the saves are the third most important pointer for the algorithm. Because this means the user is going out of their way to help the creator reach more views either from other people or by himself either by saving or sharing a video.
This is a very strong indicator of how important this content is.
Then, finally, it’s time for the algorithm to consider the likes and comments.
It is true that they are important and a post is distributed far larger if it’s got many likes than the post without. But that ends as soon as the likes stop coming.
Although the algorithm works, in the same way, all the time, humans don’t. One person from the initial distribution may like your video, while the next one may swipe up.
Video performance analysis
While the above may seem like a lot to consider for an algorithm, the time it takes is merely a fraction of a second as we have mentioned.
In fact, within this fraction of a second, and in real-time, the TikTok algorithm keeps track of what happens with your video.
At this point, we know how the algorithm knows what the video is about, and how it formed for the first viewing experience.
Depending on the results, the algorithm either repeats the processor ends the life of a video.
Yet it gives the video one more chance to win the viewers over by showing it to other people with similar interests.
Obviously, even the ByteDance itself would not be able to see the difference between the first batch of people and the second batch as it is something that is totally up to the algorithm.
How Does the Video End up on Your Screen ?
Now that we talked about the steps and the journey each video takes, let us now look at the same thing from the user’s point of view.
Much like the life cycle of the video, the TikTok algorithm is pretty simple when you really understand it.
The same algorithm we are trying to understand keeps track of every action of every single user. Well, because you know the algorithm is smart but also because it needs to.
The reason it needs to have all this information is to be able to serve you better. The moment a user signs up, the algorithm gets to know the user, not by their name or last name, but more from their ID, and behavior.
Do you remember the data it keeps on each video?
When it comes to the users it keeps the same data but from a different point of view.
For example, as a user, you came across a video that you liked and watched till the end. Now the TikTok algorithm associates the details of the video with your recent activity.
To make it even simpler, let us say, you watched that video we talked about earlier. In this video, the algorithm came to recognize two humans, females, laptops, coffees, and the faces looking at the screens of the laptops.
Already, at this point, the algorithm can deduce that these two females looking at their laptops are probably working. It understands their behavior even better with the metadata, and the transcript of the dialogue.
After all this information, AI understands that you like this and this kind of content.
To make it even more simple and more graphic, we have made a picture like so below.
How Does the Algorithm Decide What to Show You?
At this point, it should all be clear that the TikTok algorithm understands what you liked and what you did not like.
Just like with the posts, the AI rates the type of content that you rewatch as the one type that you are most interested in.
This excludes the types of videos that you play on repeat. After all, the algorithm is pretty smart and knows that you are trying to trick it.
You might wonder how this idea works?
Well, viral content gets to be played not on repeat but over and over after a period of time.
For example, the same video we discussed a bit earlier.
If you were to watch it and like it, you would most likely want to recommend it to other people right? At least to your friends. Even if as a recommendation or as a way to show, you would have to play it again. This counts as a rewatch.
However, the TikTok algorithm also tracks the replays and rewatches up to only a few times.
So, if you are playing something on repeat but only a few times, this also counts and is considered as the type of content you are interested in.
The next type of content is as you already know the kind that you complete watching. The retention time is so high with TikTok that regular and active users spend about an hour a day on the platform.
That is a long, long time for a platform that only features one to three-minute content.
Although active users spend an hour, that doesn’t mean that they watch whatever comes up on their screen. They scroll up more often than any other social media platforms’ users.
How TikTok algorithm matches the user to a video
When the information about the user comes to the database. To match the user with the video, the algorithm only has to match as many similar interests as possible.
By similar, we mean that if you watched a video with girls in it. The algorithm is more likely to recommend your videos to more girls.
But this leaves out all the other necessary information that we talked about. Like the dialogue, space, and things.
So, every time, it just matches as many similarities as possible. If you remember the lifecycle of each video on the TikTok platform.
Then you may know that the first batch of people is usually the ones that will be more likely to be interested in that content. This is identified by the platforms’ observation of the behavior of a certain user.
There is one more important point to make here. We know the TikTok algorithm keeps track of the activities of the user. Thus, it knows which type of videos you liked the most by analyzing the watch time, completion rate, and the saves, shares, comments, etc.
If a user was to rewatch something on how to tie a tie, the algorithm thinks that the user is really interested in learning about how to tie a tie.
This is very useful for the content creator who has videos on this very topic because they get to be recommended to these people more often and with priority than other people with different content.
But this has a specific drawback to the user.
One big drawback of the Algorithm and how to leverage it
As a user, if you watched or rewatched a video this only means you probably were interested in that very video only. Well, you could be interested in the topic overall.
But taking from our example, you wouldn’t want to watch multiple videos on how to tie a tie all the time.
But the algorithm once you rewatch a video starts to think that you are interested in that type of content and keeps shoving it up on your screen.
This is not helpful at all, because you already know how to tie a tie. This is something that the developers couldn’t fix yet, or probably won’t be able to fix for quite some time.
Because this is what we call a human factor. The AI behind the TikTok algorithm does not know 100% what the human is going to do.
Creators often abuse TikTok recommendation system
Although this may seem ill-advised, you can use the algorithms’ inability to recognize when viewers change their focus leveraging the human factors to your advantage.
How?
By analyzing the types of videos the users are most interested in.
You can find this out by analyzing the hashtags/keywords the users are looking for on the platform.
We have some content on this topic ready-made for you that you can read here.
But you may now understand why all those blogs keep talking about hashtags, and titles and stuff.
Although, they may not understand this is how a user gets to find your specific video, by helping the TikTok algorithm match your search intent with the creators’ content.
You, on the other hand, by understanding the real AI behind the algorithm will be able to make better decisions and make going viral on TikTok the science it is supposed to be.
To Wrap Up
Before we wrap it up, let us break down the steps of how the TikTok algorithm works with new videos. The steps we have already mentioned in this post.
- ✔️ A user posts the video and the details are recorded by the algorithm.
- ✔️A video is analyzed: transcript, meta data, things, spaces, etcs.
- ✔️ The audience is analyzed: AI keeps track of viewer’s reaction to see what is preferred.
- ✔️ Video performance analyzed: after the first distribution to the right audience, the algorithm looks at how many rewatches, complete watches, saves, shares etcs, it receives.
These 4 steps are repeated a few times until the post totally runs out of the cycle.
When it comes to the video ending up on your screen, the algorithm does this three steps:
- ✔️ New user: after the person signs up, the algorithm tracks each and every activity and records it.
- ✔️New clips are shown: they are determined by the time the user spends watching each post and by their reactions.
- ✔️ New User data updates: every time the user starts to watch a slightly different content than the one that was recommended, the algorithm takes notice and adds to suggested content in the future.
📌 If you like to find out more about TikTok and how to grow on TikTok check out our TikTok category.