TikTok has exploded in popularity in recent years, becoming one of the most widely used social media platforms among teenagers and young adults. With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok allows users to connect with friends, share videos, and discover entertaining content.
But how connected are TikTok friends really? According to a 2021 study, over 50% of TikTok users have connected with people they know in real life on the platform, despite never actively adding them as friends. This statistic highlights how TikTok’s algorithm works hard behind the scenes to suggest accounts you may know based on your contacts and online activity. While this can help users find people they know, it also raises questions around privacy and just how much of your activity TikTok tracks.
Defining TikTok Friends
On TikTok, a “friend” is someone who you have accepted as a follower or followed back after they followed you first.
You can become friends with other users by searching for their profile and tapping “Follow”, or by accepting their follow request. According to TikTok’s “What is a Friend?” video, friendship on the platform simply means you have agreed to see each other’s content on your For You pages by following each other.
Essentially, a TikTok friend is someone you have mutually followed. This allows you to message each other and easily view posts from accounts you are connected with.
It’s important to note that TikTok friendships do not require personal knowledge or interaction. You can become TikTok friends with people you’ve never met in real life.
Privacy Settings
TikTok allows users to control some privacy settings related to likes and follows. In your account settings under “Privacy,” you can choose between a private or public account. With a private account, only people you approve as followers can see your videos, likes, and follows [1].
You can also set who can see your liked videos under “Privacy.” The options are: everyone (public accounts only), followers (private accounts only), or only me [2]. So for private accounts, likes are only visible to approved followers.
Overall, making your account private gives you more control over who can see your activity on TikTok [3].
Can Friends See Your Likes?
By default, TikTok makes all of your likes public so anyone who views your profile can see the content you’ve liked. However, TikTok does give you the option to change this setting and keep your likes private if you prefer.
To hide your likes from everyone except yourself, go to your profile page and tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner. Select “Privacy and Settings”, then tap “Privacy and Safety”. Under “Liked Videos”, toggle the setting for “Private Likes” on. This will make sure your likes are visible only to you.
With this setting enabled, friends and other users who visit your profile will no longer be able to see the videos you’ve liked. Only you will have access to view your full like history. Keep in mind that hiding your likes only applies to future videos – any likes made before changing this setting will still be public.
According to TikTok’s newsroom article, “Controlling what people see on your profile” [1], the feature to make likes private was added to give users more control over their privacy. So if you don’t want your video preferences on display, you can easily hide them from friends and followers.
Can Friends See Who You Follow?
By default, the friends you have on TikTok are able to see the full list of accounts you follow on the platform. This list is accessible from your profile by tapping on the “Following” tab, which shows all the users you currently follow.
According to an article on Adweek, “Users can stop others from seeing who they follow … By default, TikTok users can view a list of the users someone follows on the video-sharing platform just by tapping on that account’s Following tab.” 1
So if you haven’t changed your privacy settings, your TikTok friends are able to see your full following list. They can view all the accounts you follow, unless you take steps to hide your following list, as explained in the section below.
Friend Activity Tab
The Friend Activity tab on TikTok allows your friends to see certain activity from your account. This tab shows friends when you are active on TikTok and what content you have recently interacted with.
Specifically, your mutual followers (friends who also follow you back) can see when you were “last active” if you both have your Activity Status turned on in your privacy settings. The Friend Activity feed shows friends your likes, comments, shares and posts from the last 7 days. It does not show who you follow or view content from.
You have some control over what friends see in the Activity tab through your settings. You can turn the Activity Status off to hide your active status. You can also toggle off “Allow friends to view your video history” in the privacy settings to limit what appears in your friends’ feed.
Overall, the Friend Activity tab allows close friends on TikTok to get a glimpse into videos you have engaged with recently. But it does not share private information about accounts you follow or view.
Using Finstas
A Finsta (fake Instagram) is a secondary social media account often used by young people to share more private content with a smaller group of friends. Finstas are now popular on TikTok as well, where they are sometimes called “Faketoks.” The goal of a Finsta is to have an alternate account where you can post content you may not want seen by all of your followers on your main account.
Finstas can help hide some activity from your main friend group on TikTok. For example, any videos you post and likes you make on your Finsta will not show up to friends who only follow your main account. You can also limit your Finsta account to just your closest friends. This allows you to like and view content that you do not want your broader friend group to know about.
However, Finstas have limitations in how much they can hide on TikTok. They do not prevent friends who follow both your main account and Finsta from seeing everything you do. Friends can also still see when you are online and active on TikTok overall when using a Finsta. So while Finstas provide some privacy, they do not completely hide all activity from friends.
According to a 2021 report from OurSaferSchools.co.uk, over half of teenagers surveyed have secondary social media accounts that their parents are unaware of [1]. Parents and guardians should be aware of these alternate accounts and have open conversations with children about their social media use.
Profile Settings
TikTok allows users to control some privacy settings related to likes and follows through their profile settings. In the TikTok app, tap on your profile icon at the bottom, then tap the three dots in the top right corner to access your profile settings.
Under “Privacy,” you can choose whether you want your likes to be private or public. If likes are set to private, only you can see the videos you’ve liked. If set to public, any user who visits your profile can see all the videos you’ve liked. TikTok’s help center provides instructions on changing this setting.
For followers, there is no setting to hide who you are following. The list of accounts you follow is always public for any user to see on your profile page. You can unfollow accounts at any time if you don’t want certain follows to be public.
Third-Party Apps
While TikTok doesn’t provide a built-in way to see someone else’s likes and follows, there are some third-party apps that can help you monitor someone else’s TikTok activity.
Apps like FamiGuard and uMobix offer features to see likes, comments, followers and other activity on someone’s TikTok profile. They work by accessing the TikTok API and don’t require you to have the person’s password or account access.
Another monitoring app called Eyezy lets parents view kids’ TikTok activity, likes and profiles. These apps do have subscription fees but can provide more visibility into TikTok use than the platform itself offers.
While using these apps to monitor someone else’s activity without their consent raises ethical issues, parents may find them useful for keeping kids safe online. But monitoring apps don’t give you access to private content or direct messages.
Conclusion
In summary, whether your TikTok friends can see your likes and follows depends on your privacy settings. By default, your likes and follows are private. However, you can choose to make them public in your settings. Friends can see your likes if you’ve liked content created by mutual friends or content on your FYP that they’ve also liked. The Friend Activity tab shows friends when you’re active, but not specific content you view. Third-party apps claiming to show your private likes and follows should be avoided. Overall, TikTok does provide options to limit sharing of your activity with friends, if you prefer to keep that information private.
