If you post a private video on TikTok, the only people who can view it are those you’ve approved as followers. Private videos are only visible to your followers, not the general public. Here’s a more in-depth look at how private videos work on TikTok and who can see them.
What are private videos on TikTok?
On TikTok, you have the option to set your videos as either public or private. Public videos can be viewed by anyone on TikTok. Private videos, on the other hand, are only visible to your approved followers.
When you share a private video, it will have a little lock icon on it indicating its privacy status. Private videos do not show up on your public profile and aren’t discoverable by people who don’t follow you.
Who can view your private videos?
The only people who can view your private TikTok videos are your followers who you have approved. Followers have to request to see your private content, and you have to manually approve each follower request in order for them to gain access.
So if someone wants to see your private videos, here is the process:
- They send you a follow request
- You review their profile and approve their request
- Once approved as a follower, they can view your private content
You have full control over approving followers. If at any time you want to revoke access, you can remove a follower and they will no longer be able to view your private videos.
Viewing private videos from followers you don’t approve
What happens if someone you haven’t approved sends you a private video? Even without approving them, you can still view their private content in your notifications inbox.
When someone sends you a private video, TikTok will notify you. If you tap on the notification, it will open the private video. This allows you to preview private content from potential new followers to determine if you want to approve them.
Can you tell if someone has viewed your private videos?
There is no way to get a view history of who has watched your private TikTok videos. Unlike public videos, private videos do not show view counts or who has seen them.
The only exception is if you’ve enabled live viewer counts. When broadcasting a private live video, you can see how many of your followers are viewing it in real time.
Private video privacy settings
In your TikTok settings, you can choose who can view your private videos by default:
- Followers: Only followers you’ve approved can view private videos.
- Friends: In addition to followers, friends added through your TikTok contacts can view private videos.
Regardless of this default setting, you still have to manually approve each follower request for them to view your private content. The “Friends” setting just grants access to friends more easily.
Is there a way to post truly private videos?
Even if you set videos to private on TikTok, approved followers can still theoretically screen record or download your private videos. So they aren’t 100% private.
If you want to share videos more privately, experts recommend:
- Using the TikTok messaging feature to send videos directly to contacts.
- Posting unlisted videos that only people with a direct link can view.
- Using a more secure app designed for private sharing.
Public versus private videos
In summary, here’s how public and private videos compare on TikTok:
| Public Videos | Private Videos |
|---|---|
| Viewable by anyone | Only viewable by approved followers |
| Appear in searches and For You feed | Do not appear in public areas of TikTok |
| View counts displayed | No view counts displayed |
So if you want to control who sees your content, marking videos as private limits visibility only to your loyal followers. Just be aware private does not equal 100% secure on TikTok.
Using TikTok’s privacy settings
Here are some recommendations for managing your privacy settings on TikTok:
- Review follower requests regularly and be selective about approvals.
- Toggle your account to private if you don’t want random people viewing your content.
- Use updated comment filters to limit engagements.
- Turn off video downloads if you don’t want your content being saved.
- Restrict duets and stitches to protect your original content.
Take time to go through all the privacy settings to have better control over your videos, profile and interactions on TikTok.
Conclusion
Posting private videos limits visibility to only your followers list. While not completely secure, private videos do allow creator’s more control over their content. Use TikTok’s privacy settings to protect videos from being accessed by those you haven’t approved.
