What Is a Private Account on TikTok?
A private account on TikTok means only approved followers can view your profile information and videos. With a private account, you have full control over who can see your content. Your videos, likes, followers, and following will not be visible to the public (Choosing between a private or public account).
In contrast, a public account on TikTok is visible to everyone. Anyone can view your profile info, follower count, likes, comments, and videos without needing approval. Public accounts get more exposure, but private accounts offer more privacy and control.
Why Make an Account Private?
There are several reasons why TikTok users may want to make their accounts private:
Privacy and safety reasons – With a private account, users can control who sees their content and personal information. This allows them to avoid unwanted attention from strangers and potential harassers. It gives users more privacy and helps them feel safer on the platform.
Avoid unwanted attention – Public accounts can attract comments and messages from random viewers. Making an account private limits interactions to only approved followers, avoiding potentially unwanted attention.
Control who sees your content – Private accounts allow users to share content with a select audience. They can build a community of followers they know and trust to view their videos and engage with their channel. It gives creators more control over their audience.
Overall, private accounts give TikTok users more control over their privacy, safety and audience on the platform. The ability to approve followers makes the experience more personalized and potentially less prone to harassment from strangers.
How to Make Your TikTok Account Private
Making your TikTok account private is a simple process that can be done directly in the TikTok app in just a few steps:
- Open the TikTok app and go to your profile page.
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Settings and privacy” from the menu.
- Tap “Privacy” on the next screen.
- Toggle the switch next to “Private account” to turn it green.
Once you toggle your account to private, TikTok will immediately make your account and all its videos private. Other users will no longer be able to find or view your account unless you approve them as followers.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the “Private account” toggle in your TikTok app settings:
It’s that easy to convert your TikTok to a private account! Just toggle the switch and your account will instantly become private.
Who Can See a Private Account?
When you make your TikTok account private, only approved followers can see your videos, likes, and other interactions. Your profile information, username, bio, and profile photo will remain public, but all other content will be hidden from users who don’t follow you.
To gain access to a private account’s content, users must send a follow request. The account holder can then approve or deny the request. Once approved as a follower, users will be able to view all private videos, likes, comments, live streams, and other content.
Mutual followers will also have access to private content. If User A follows User B, and User B follows back, both accounts become mutual followers and can view each other’s private content automatically.
Private accounts can also be mentioned in captions by mutual followers or other approved followers. While the video or content itself remains private, mentions in captions will be visible to the mutual/approved follower audience.
Approving Followers
When an account is set to private on TikTok, the account holder can manually approve or deny each follow request. This allows users to control who can view their content. According to TikTok’s account privacy settings support page, follow requests will appear in the user’s Activity tab with options to Accept or Delete.
In addition to manual approval, TikTok also allows users to auto-approve followers based on existing relationships. As stated in TikTok’s account settings overview, users can choose to automatically approve followers they are mutuals with or who have phone contacts synced with their account. This makes it easier to connect with friends and existing connections without needing manual approval.
Overall, the approval process for followers gives users control over their audience while also providing options to easily connect with people they already know on TikTok when using a private account.
Interacting with Private Accounts
Users need approval to follow, comment, duet, stitch, or otherwise interact with private TikTok accounts. When someone tries to follow a private profile, the account owner will get a request that they can choose to accept or deny. Unless the owner approves the request, followers will not be able to view any of the account’s private content.
Private accounts also cannot be messaged unless you are an approved follower. The messaging feature only works between mutual followers. So if someone wants to message a private account, the private account owner would first need to approve their follow request. Once approved as a follower, direct messaging between both users would be enabled.
Some key limitations when interacting with private TikTok accounts include:
- Cannot follow or view content without approval
- Cannot comment on videos without approval
- Cannot duet or stitch videos without approval
- Cannot message the user until follow is approved
Overall, private accounts give the owner full control over who can interact. Public commenting, dueting, etc is disabled unless a user gets approval to follow the private profile first. This allows private account owners to limit their audience and engagement to only approved followers.
Going Live with a Private Account
When you go live on TikTok with a private account, only your approved followers can view the livestream by default. This allows you to connect with your followers in real time without opening up your livestreams to the general public.
However, you can change the audience for specific livestreams if you want to. In the settings when you start a livestream, you can toggle the “Live to:” option to “Public” instead of “Followers.” This will make that individual live broadcast viewable by everyone, even if your account is private overall.
So having a private account gives you flexibility over who sees your live content. You can limit livestreams to just approved followers you are comfortable with, but also have the option to expand your audience as desired for certain broadcasts. TikTok’s livestreaming tools let private account holders customize their streaming experience.
Source: https://www.guru99.com/how-to-view-private-tiktok-accounts.html
Changing Back to Public
If you decide you want to switch your TikTok account back to public, it’s easy to do. Here are the steps:
1. Open the TikTok app and go to your profile page.
2. Tap on the three dot menu icon in the top right corner.
3. Select “Settings and privacy” from the menu.
4. Tap on “Privacy” and toggle the “Private account” setting to off.
Once you toggle your account back to public, all of your previously private content will become visible to anyone again. Your follower count will also become public. Switching back to a public account means anyone can see your profile info, watch your videos, and interact with your content without needing approval to follow you.
Pros and Cons
Some advantages and positive aspects to having a private TikTok account include:
– More control over who can view and interact with your content. You get to approve each follower individually, filtering out unwanted or inappropriate interactions.
– Increased privacy and protection. Your videos, likes, comments, etc. are hidden from random users browsing TikTok.
– Build a community of followers who are genuinely interested in your content before going public.
However, there are also some downsides and limitations to a private TikTok account:
– Harder to get new followers and grow an audience organically. New users won’t be able to find and follow you.
– Limits potential collaborations and partnerships. Brands/creators can’t discover you if your account is on private.
– Difficult to promote yourself or specific videos. You can’t share content directly with new followers.
– Reduced opportunities for going viral. Videos won’t be pushed by the algorithm to non-followers.
Overall, the choice comes down to your priorities – growth vs privacy. Both public and private accounts have pros and cons.
Private Account Statistics
According to TikTok analytics data, approximately 25-30% of TikTok accounts are set to private. This allows users to limit their audience and maintain more control over who can view their content.
Over the past few years, the percentage of private accounts on TikTok has steadily increased. A 2021 survey of over 1,000 teens found that 34% had private TikTok accounts, up from just 19% in 2019. This uptrend suggests users are becoming more privacy-conscious on the platform.
There are also differences in private account usage based on age. A 2022 report showed 42% of TikTok users aged 13-17 had private accounts, compared to only 22% of users aged 35-44. Younger users seem more inclined to leverage TikTok’s privacy settings.
Private accounts allow more curation over one’s audience and content. As TikTok continues to amass users of all ages, the percentage of private accounts is likely to keep rising over time as users maximize their privacy options.
