What is the Hidden Heart Emoji on TikTok?
The hidden heart emoji on TikTok is an unofficial emoji that looks just like a regular red heart emoji. However, when someone sends it on a TikTok, the heart appears only to the sender – the recipient doesn’t see it or get notified about it (1).
This allows TikTok users to privately “like” a video without the creator being notified. It’s similar to lurking on someone’s profile without following them (1). The hidden heart emoji enables more discretion in indicating appreciation or interest in a video or creator.
People mainly use the hidden heart emoji to show support for someone or something without overtly revealing it. For example, someone may want to heart a video without the creator getting a public notification. Hidden hearts can help users express themselves privately (2).
(1) https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-secret-emojis/
(2) https://www.tiktok.com/channel/heart-color-meanings
When Was the Hidden Heart Introduced?
The hidden heart emoji was introduced by TikTok in November 2020 as part of an update that also included other new features like stitch and green screen effects.
The purpose of adding hidden hearts was to provide users with a way to show appreciation for videos and creators without publicly engaging. This allowed fans to privately show support while still keeping their profile and likes more curated.
Prior to hidden hearts being an option, users had to either publicly like content, which clutters up profile likes, or not engage at all. Hidden hearts struck a balance – letting users engage while maintaining a cultivated profile.
The feature dropped alongside TikTok’s rising popularity in late 2020, when the app hit 2 billion global downloads. Hidden hearts enabled more silent appreciation alongside public engagement.
According to TikTok’s November 2020 announcement, hidden hearts give users “more ways to share kindness.” This catalyzed a shift toward more private interaction.
How to Use the Hidden Heart Emoji
Sending a hidden heart on TikTok is easy to do in just a few steps:
1. When viewing someone’s TikTok video, tap the heart icon at the bottom as you normally would to “like” the video. This opens up the screen with different heart options.
2. Instead of tapping a colored heart, tap on the emoji heart icon at the far right of the heart menu.
3. This opens up the menu with all the secret TikTok emojis. Scroll down until you find the hidden heart emoji that looks like a barely-visible white heart outline.
4. Tap on the hidden heart emoji to send it to the video creator. They will receive the hidden heart with your username attached.
The hidden heart emoji allows you to “like” someone’s TikTok video without publicly displaying that you liked it like a normal heart does.
The process is the same whether you are using TikTok on an iPhone or Android device. Just tap the heart icon, then the emoji icon, and scroll to select the hidden heart.
It’s a discreet way to show appreciation for a TikTok creator without making it public knowledge to all your followers and theirs. Sending the hidden heart keeps things more private.
Who Can See Your Hidden Hearts?
The hidden heart emoji is designed to be private. Only you can see the hidden hearts you’ve sent to other videos. The creator of the video you hidely hearted is not notified and cannot see that you sent a hidden heart to their video.
This differs from a regular heart on TikTok. When you send a regular heart to a video, the video’s creator is notified and can see exactly who hearted their video. With a hidden heart, your name and like are completely invisible to the recipient.
So in summary, the hidden heart emoji allows you to privately like videos without the video creator being notified in any way. It’s a one-way interaction – you can see your hidden hearts but the recipients have no idea you’ve secretly liked their content.
Why Send a Hidden Heart?
The hidden heart emoji allows users to show appreciation for a video without sending a public notification to the creator. Sending a regular heart on TikTok immediately notifies the video’s creator and adds the heart to their public like count. The hidden heart, in contrast, lets you quietly bookmark content you enjoy without alerting the creator.
Hidden hearts provide a way to privately save and collect videos you like. Rather than publicly signaling your interests through regular hearts, hidden hearts let you curate a more private collection of bookmarked content. You can look back on the videos you’ve hidden hearted in your profile. This provides a way to easily find and rewatch videos you’ve enjoyed in the past without others being aware.
Overall, the main reasons to use a hidden heart are to appreciate content without notification and to privately bookmark videos you want to save for later. Hidden hearts give users more control over what interactions they make public on TikTok versus keep private.
Hidden Hearts vs Regular Hearts
There are some key differences between sending a standard red heart and a hidden heart on TikTok:
Regular red hearts are public and visible to everyone. Hidden hearts are private and only visible to the recipient. The main use case for regular hearts is showing public appreciation and support for a TikTok. Hidden hearts allow you to privately show affection and approval for someone’s content.
Many people use regular hearts liberally as a way to engage with TikToks. Hidden hearts tend to be used more selectively as a discreet way to show interest and admiration for a specific person’s videos. Some users even use hidden hearts as a “secret admirer” technique to hint at a crush on another user.
Whereas regular hearts contribute to a TikTok’s overall engagement metrics, hidden hearts do not. The main incentive for using hidden hearts is keeping the interaction private between two users. Hidden hearts can signify a deeper connection or inside joke that others don’t need to see.
Overall, standard hearts are better for showing public support. Hidden hearts allow for more subtle, personal interactions. Many users employ a mix of both heart types depending on the situation.
https://www.tiktok.com/channel/heart-color-meanings
Finding Your Hidden Hearts
To view the hidden hearts you’ve sent from your own profile, open up your profile page and tap the heart icon in the top right. This will open up your Likes page. Scroll down and tap “Hidden” at the top. Here you’ll see a feed of all the videos you’ve secretly liked with the hidden heart.
To look up historical hidden hearts you’ve sent, you unfortunately can’t scroll back forever in your Likes feed. But there is a trick to quickly jump to the bottom. Open your Likes page, then tap and hold the feed and drag down. Keep holding and dragging and the feed will rapidly scroll. Once you hit the bottom, you can then scroll back up to your first hidden likes.
According to TikTok’s help page, while you can’t search for specific videos you’ve hidden hearted, you can bookmark videos ahead of time before using the hidden heart to make them easier to find later. You can also use TikTok’s download feature to save videos you want to be able to reference your hidden likes on.
Hidden Hearts Controversy
The hidden heart feature on TikTok has generated some controversy and backlash. Some users have expressed concerns that the ability to secretly like videos could enable stalking or harassment.
In particular, there was an incident where TikTok creator Lauren Riihimaki posted a video titled “Powerless” talking about feelings of loneliness. Shortly after, Riihimaki noticed a flood of hidden hearts on the video from a few accounts. This led to accusations that a group of people were stalking her account and maliciously using the hidden hearts to harass her without being identified.
Riihimaki spoke out against this behavior and asked people to stop misusing the hidden heart feature for negativity. She also called on TikTok to re-evaluate the feature and whether sufficient protections against harassment are in place. The controversy sparked a debate about balancing safety with maintaining users’ privacy and ability to interact anonymously.
Overall, the hidden heart feature has proved controversial as some believe it enables abusive behaviors. Critics argue TikTok needs stronger moderation, especially for vulnerable creators who may face anonymous harassment campaigns. However, others defend hidden hearts as a way to privately show appreciation and feel TikTok should not remove what can be a positive feature when used appropriately.
Tips for Using Hidden Hearts
Here are some tips for using hidden hearts effectively on TikTok:
Focus on quality over quantity. Don’t just spam hidden hearts on every video. Be selective and use them to show meaningful appreciation for creators you truly enjoy.
Use hidden hearts to support smaller creators who don’t get a lot of engagement yet. Getting a hidden heart notification can make their day.
Spread out your hidden hearts throughout the day instead of all at once. This increases the chances that creators will notice them.
Pay attention to when creators go live and send them hidden hearts during the broadcast. They will appreciate the real-time support.
Hide your heart icons if you want to privately show appreciation without inflating a video’s public heart count. This avoids skewing engagement metrics.
Send hidden hearts for genuinely funny, insightful, or creative videos that made you smile. Don’t just focus on physical appearance.
Use hidden hearts to reinforce positive behavior and content you want to see more of from creators.
Avoid overusing hidden hearts or they may lose their meaning. Reserve them for your true favorite videos.
Pair hidden hearts with comments to show creators extra love and support. The notification combo is more impactful.
Be yourself and use hidden hearts to express what resonates with you personally. Don’t just follow trends.
Future of Hidden Hearts
The Hidden Hearts feature on TikTok is likely to continue evolving as the platform looks for new ways to enhance user engagement. Here are some potential directions for the future of Hidden Hearts:
TikTok may add more options and controls around Hidden Hearts, giving users the ability to sort or view their incoming hidden hearts in different ways, or grant permissions to certain accounts to allow viewing hidden hearts. This Hootsuite article speculates that TikTok could let users publicly display the number of Hidden Hearts received, without revealing the specific accounts sending them. More robust analytics and metrics around Hidden Hearts may arrive in the future as well.
Given TikTok’s meteoric growth and popularity, Hidden Hearts could certainly spread to other social media platforms also looking for new engagement features. Facebook or Instagram may take inspiration from Hidden Hearts and incorporate similar private reactions into their apps. This could allow users to subtly express support or appreciation for content without publicly liking or commenting on posts. As social media networks compete for user attention and interaction, hidden or private reactions seem primed to propagate across platforms.
