TikTok video

What it means

TikTok popularized the modern short-form format: full-screen vertical video, sound-first, served in an endless feed chosen by an algorithm rather than by who you follow. Videos can be much longer than they used to be, but short clips still dominate the feed.

For action creators, the appeal is reach. A new account can get a single clip in front of a large audience if viewers watch it through, rewatch it and share it. That makes TikTok a strong place to test which moments work, and a weak place for long, slow storytelling. Trends, sounds and formats change quickly, and many of them rely on templates.

How it works in practice

Export at 1080 by 1920 pixels, 9:16. Crop widescreen footage tightly around the subject so it stays readable on a phone.

Start with the action. The first second decides whether people keep watching, so open on the most striking frame, not on a slow build-up; see hook for techniques.

Use trending sounds from inside the app when you want reach, since music added outside may be muted or limited. Captions help, as many people watch with the sound off at first. Keep each video to one idea, such as a trick, a crash, a before-and-after or a short tip, and post consistently rather than in rare bursts.

What to watch out for

The interface covers large parts of the frame: buttons on the right, captions and the music bar at the bottom. Keep faces and text in the middle, as explained under safe zones.

TikTok compresses uploads, sometimes heavily. Upload a clean, high-quality file and enable the high-quality upload option in settings if your app offers it, as explained under platform recompression.

Downloaded TikToks carry a watermark, and reposting them elsewhere often reduces reach. Keep your own clean exports for each platform, named clearly so you always know which file is the master.