Why Would You Want to Unprivate Your TikTok Account?
TikTok allows users to choose between having a private account or a public account. With a private account, you have to manually approve each follower request and only approved followers can view your content. This gives you more control over who sees your videos.
There are a few key reasons why TikTok users may want to switch from a private account to a public account:
- To increase discoverability and reach a wider audience. Public accounts can access TikTok’s “For You” feed which helps expose your content.
- To more easily collaborate and engage with other creators. It’s easier to find and connect with potential collaborators.
- To grow your follower count faster. Public accounts tend to gain followers at a higher rate.
- To access certain features like LIVE streaming. This requires a public account.
Making your account public opens up opportunities for growth and engagement on TikTok. However, it also means giving up control over who can see and interact with your account.
Reasons to Unprivate Your TikTok Account
One of the main reasons people choose to unprivate their TikTok account is to reach a wider audience and get more views and followers. When your account is private, only people you approve can see your videos and follow you. This limits your potential reach.
By making your account public, your videos become visible to all TikTok users. This exposes your content to a much broader audience and gives you the opportunity to gain more views, likes, comments, and followers. Essentially, it allows your account and videos to go viral more easily.
More visibility leads to faster growth. Public accounts tend to gain followers at a higher rate than private accounts. So if your goal is to build a large TikTok following, unprivating your account can help accelerate that growth.
How to Unprivate Your TikTok Account
Here are the step-by-step instructions for unprivating your TikTok account:
- Open the TikTok app on your mobile device and tap on your profile icon in the bottom right corner.
- Tap on the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Under “Settings,” tap on “Privacy.”
- Toggle the switch next to “Private account” to off/gray. This will make your account public.
- A pop-up will appear confirming you want to make your account public. Tap “Confirm” to complete unprivating your account.
- You can double check your account is now public by looking for the globe icon next to your username on your profile.
As per TikTok’s support article, unprivating your TikTok converts it to a public account, allowing all users to view your profile and videos without needing to follow you or send a follow request.
Effects of Unprivating Your TikTok Account
The main effect of unprivating your TikTok account is increased exposure and reach for your videos. When your account is private, the only people who can view your videos are your approved followers. But when your account is public, anyone on TikTok can view, comment on, and like your videos.
Having a public account means your videos have the potential to be seen and engaged with by many more people. According to TikTok’s support article, your videos may receive more comments and likes when your account is public since more users can find and watch your content on TikTok. This gives your videos a better chance of going viral.
Additionally, only content from public accounts is eligible to appear on TikTok’s “For You” feed, which is the main feed that surfaces videos based on users’ interests. So making your account public can allow your videos to reach new audiences organically who may be interested in your content.
Overall, the main effects of having a public TikTok account are increased visibility for your profile and content. This opens up opportunities for more engagement, views, and followers. However, it’s important to weigh the benefits and risks before making your account public.
Risks of Having a Public TikTok Account
Having a public TikTok account comes with certain risks that you should consider before making your profile viewable to everyone. Two major risks are loss of privacy and receiving inappropriate comments.
When your account is public, anyone can see your videos, likes, comments, and other interactions on TikTok without you approving them as a follower first. This means total strangers have access to information about your interests, views, and personal life if you share it on your public profile or in your videos. According to Social Media Privacy: What Are The Risks? (How To Stay Safe), having a public social media presence makes it easier for cyberbullies, predators, and scammers to target you.
Public accounts also open you up to receiving unwanted, inappropriate, or even harassing comments from strangers on your videos and profile. The more followers and views you gain, the more likely it is you could encounter disturbing or offensive remarks. As Social media, online gaming and keeping children safe online explains, cyberbullying is a major issue on platforms like TikTok.
While TikTok does have controls to limit some interactions and filter comments, it’s impossible to have full control over who engages with your content when your account is public. So if maintaining your privacy and limiting unsolicited attention is important to you, it’s worth considering the risks before opening up your account to everyone.
Who Can See Your TikTok Account When Unprivate
When your TikTok account is made public, your profile, videos, likes, and comments will be visible to anyone on TikTok. According to TikTok’s Newsroom article, your account starts as public by default so any user can see your content and interact with it unless you change the settings.
Making your account public means:
- All TikTok users can view your profile, follow you, see your videos, and comment or engage with your content.
- Your current followers will continue to see your profile and videos.
- Friends you are connected with on TikTok will have access to your profile.
- Your profile, likes, videos, and comments will be visible to anyone searching TikTok.
Essentially, unprivating your account makes all aspects of your TikTok presence open to everyone on the platform. Existing followers maintain access but now anyone can discover and interact with your profile without needing approval to follow you or view private content.
Protecting Yourself on a Public TikTok Account
Even with a public account, there are many tools within TikTok to help you control your experience and protect your privacy and safety. Here are some best practices:
Use the privacy settings to customize who can view, comment on, duet with, etc. your videos. You can limit these to people you approve as followers or turn them off completely.
Moderate your comments. You can filter comments by keywords or turn off commenting entirely. You can also block or report individual users who leave inappropriate comments.
Be selective about approving follower requests. Consider setting your account so you manually approve each new follower.
Use the “Restricted Mode” to limit the appearance of content that may be inappropriate or offensive to you.
Report users or content that violates TikTok’s community guidelines. You can report directly on videos, comments, accounts, etc.
Enable two-factor authentication for additional account security.
Frequently check and update your privacy and security settings as needed. TikTok often adds new controls you can leverage.
Never share personal information like your location, address, phone number, etc. publicly on your profile or in videos.
Going Back to Private After Being Public
After making your TikTok account public, you may eventually decide you want to switch back to private for more privacy and control over who can see your content. The process for making your account private again is simple:
- Open the TikTok app and go to your profile page.
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper right corner.
- Select “Privacy and settings” from the menu.
- Tap “Account privacy.”
- Toggle the switch for “Private account” on (it will turn green).
Once you make your account private again, only your existing followers will be able to see your videos, likes, and any other activity. New followers will need your approval to view your profile and content. You can also go through and delete followers you no longer want to have access.
The main effects of switching back to private are increased control and selectivity over your audience. Your content and activity will no longer be public for any random TikTok user to view. Some creators prefer this added privacy. However, it can limit your ability to reach new audiences and gain followers. You have to weigh the pros and cons of a private account versus public based on your goals and comfort level.
Public Account Alternatives
If you want more privacy but still want some of your content to be public, there are a few alternatives to having a fully public account on TikTok:
Private account – You can keep your account private but make select videos public. When posting a video you have the option to “Share to” and select “Public”. This will make that individual video public while keeping your account overall private.
Change username – Use a unique username that friends know but keeps you anonymous to a general audience. Having an obscure username can give you some privacy while still allowing your content to be public.
Anonymous account – You can create a separate anonymous account not linked to your personal profile to post more public content. This keeps your main account private while allowing you to post public videos anonymously.
So in summary, there are ways to post public content without making your whole TikTok account public. You can maintain some privacy with a private account, anonymous username, or separate anonymous account.
Source: https://support.tiktok.com/en/account-and-privacy/account-privacy-settings
Summary
To recap, there are several key reasons why users may want to unprivate their TikTok accounts. These include gaining more followers and viewership, increasing opportunities for going viral or getting featured, opening up potential partnerships or sponsorships, and boosting fame or social status. Unprivating your account involves going to your profile settings and toggling the “Private Account” setting to off.
While there are benefits to having a public TikTok account, there are also risks like unwanted attention, harassment, and other security issues. To protect yourself on a public account, be selective about what personal information you share, use privacy settings wisely, and be cautious about enabling messaging/duets from strangers. Keep in mind you can always re-toggle your account back to private at any time.
In summary, unprivating your TikTok account can unlock new opportunities but requires thoughtfulness around security. It is a personal choice that depends on your goals and comfort level with public sharing versus maintaining privacy.
