TikTok is a popular social media platform where users can create and share short videos. With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing apps in recent years.
Like many other social media platforms, TikTok allows users to have multiple accounts linked to one device. There are several reasons why people may want to have more than one TikTok account, such as:
- Separating personal and professional content
- Showcasing different interests or parts of their personality
- Testing content with a secondary account before posting on their main
- Staying anonymous or private while still being active on TikTok
This article will explore the ins and outs of using multiple TikTok accounts, including how to view your own alternate accounts, find friends’ other accounts, manage privacy settings, and best practices for switching between accounts.
Viewing Your Own Accounts
If you have multiple TikTok accounts that you own and manage, you can easily switch between them on the TikTok app and website. On the app, tap your profile picture in the bottom right corner, then tap “Switch account” and select the account you want to switch to (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahZ491OxFCw).
On the desktop website, click your profile picture in the top right corner, click “Manage account”, then “Switch account” and choose the account to switch to. You can stay logged into multiple accounts at once this way (source: https://www.quora.com/How-can-you-switch-between-TikTok-accounts-on-your-desktop-like-you-can-on-your-phone).
TikTok allows seamless switching between any accounts you own and control. Just tap your profile picture to access the account switcher.
Finding Friends’ Other Accounts
TikTok makes it easy for your friends and contacts to find your other accounts on the platform. Here are some of the main ways they can discover your alternate profiles:
If you connect your contacts list to TikTok under “Add Friends”, it will recommend your other accounts to those contacts. According to TikTok’s support article, connecting your contacts enables TikTok to match your phone and social media contacts with existing TikTok accounts.
TikTok’s “Suggested Accounts” feature also recommends accounts to follow, including your own secondary profiles. As reported by Wired, you can turn this off under Privacy settings.
If you aren’t careful about username privacy, friends can search your name and find associated accounts. Having distinct usernames across accounts can prevent connections.
Your profile, followers, likes, and livestreams can also connect different accounts through friends exploring TikTok profiles and content.
Profile and Username Privacy
Making your TikTok account private is a key way to increase privacy. Private accounts mean only approved followers can view your videos, likes, and follower list. To make an account private:
- Go to your profile page
- Tap the three dots in the top right corner
- Select “Privacy and safety”
- Toggle “Private account” on
With a private account, you have full control over who can see your content. You’ll have to manually approve each new follower request.
Another privacy tactic is using an anonymous, hard to guess username. Funny or unique usernames like (https://www.tiktok.com/discover/funny-names-for-private-tiktok-accounts)[“Funny Names for Private Tiktok Accounts”] make it much harder for people to find your other accounts. Just avoid usernames that impersonate others or violate TikTok’s terms.
Linked Devices
Many TikTok users wonder if having multiple accounts on the same device links those accounts together or makes them visible to each other. The short answer is no – TikTok does not automatically show your other accounts just because you use the same device.
However, there are some important caveats. According to a Reddit thread (source), using multiple accounts on one device can flag your account as a business account. TikTok may assume you are managing social media professionally rather than personally.
Additionally, if you stay logged into multiple accounts on the same device and accidentally post from the wrong one, your other accounts could be revealed. For privacy and branding reasons, it’s wise to log out completely before switching accounts.
Livestreams
When going live on TikTok, your livestream will only appear on the account that initiated the broadcast. Viewers of the livestream will be able to see the username of the account streaming. If you have multiple accounts and want to go live with other creators, you can use the Multi-guest feature.
The Multi-guest feature allows you to invite other accounts to join your livestream as guests. To do this, tap the Multi-guest button during your livestream and select the other accounts you want to invite [1]. This will allow your other accounts to appear in the livestream while still broadcasting from your main account.
However, viewers of the livestream will be able to see the usernames of any accounts that join as guests. There is no way to hide your other account usernames if participating as a multi-guest in someone else’s livestream. The livestream will only appear on the host account’s profile.
Liked Videos and Following
By default, the videos you like and accounts you follow on TikTok are public information for anyone to see on your profile. However, you can change these settings to make your likes and follows private:
To make your liked videos private on TikTok:
- Tap the profile icon in the bottom right.
- Go to Settings and Privacy.
- Tap “Privacy”.
- Tap “Liked videos” and select “Only me”
This will make it so only you can see the videos you have liked. Other users will not be able to see which videos you have liked unless you change the setting back to public.
To make your follows private:
- Go to your profile page.
- Tap the three dots icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Privacy settings”.
- Toggle “Private account” on.
This will make your account and follows private. Only your approved followers will be able to see who you follow.
So in summary, you can control whether your likes and follows are public or private. The default setting makes them public, but changing to private in the app settings hides them from other users.
Searching by Username
One of the easiest ways to find someone’s other TikTok accounts is by searching for their username. TikTok has a dedicated search page that allows you to search for specific usernames across the platform.
To search for a username, go to https://www.tiktok.com/discover/search-username?lang=en. Type the exact username into the search bar and hit enter. This will bring up all accounts that match that username.
You can scroll through the results to see if the person you are searching for has multiple accounts. Oftentimes, people will use a variation of the same username if they have multiple accounts. You may see results like @username, @username2, @usernamebackup, etc. This makes it easy to identify if the person uses TikTok under different accounts.
Username searches are helpful for finding someone’s alternate or private accounts that may not show up when looking through their main profile. As long as the username itself is not private, TikTok’s search function will index it and make it discoverable.
Account Switching Best Practices
When managing multiple TikTok accounts, it’s important to switch between them seamlessly to avoid confusion. Here are some tips:
- Log out completely after using each account. Don’t just switch accounts in the app – fully log out to avoid accidentally posting from the wrong account.
- Use different devices for different accounts if possible. Having a dedicated phone, tablet or computer for each account makes it easy to keep them separate.
- Change your password frequently. Using unique complex passwords for each account prevents crossover if one password is compromised. Consider using a password manager.
- Pay attention to which account you’re on before posting. It’s easy to mix up accounts, so double check before sharing anything.
- Name accounts clearly. Using account names like “JohnSmithPersonal” and “JohnSmithBusiness” helps avoid confusion.
- Bookmark account pages. Save the account profile URLs to easily access each one when switching accounts.
- Use TikTok’s new account switching feature (cite: https://tryshift.com/blog/apps-hub/how-to-manage-multiple-tiktok-accounts/), allowing seamless transitions without logging in and out.
With some care taken when switching accounts, managing multiple TikTok profiles can be straightforward. Just stay organized and vigilant to prevent mistakes.
Conclusion
In summary, while there are limited ways for people to discover if you have multiple TikTok accounts, there are some scenarios where your other accounts could be revealed:
- You can easily view any other accounts you’ve created when logged into your main TikTok profile.
- Friends you follow from one account may be viewable on your other accounts you don’t follow them on.
- Public livestreams are visible to all users, so going live on an alt account can expose it.
- Liked videos and accounts you follow are visible to friends, so overlap could indicate other accounts.
- If you use the same username style across accounts, targeted searches could surface your other profiles.
Being thoughtful about account switching, keeping usernames distinct, and limiting connections can help maintain privacy across multiple accounts.
