TikTok is an iOS and Android social media video app for creating and sharing short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos.
TikTok is one of the most popular — and most interesting — social media apps on the planet, but it has yet to enter the lexicon of most average Americans.
Amazing TikTok Performance by KSRTC Staffs
The gist is this: Users film videos of themselves lip-syncing or acting out comedy sketches, up to 15 seconds long, and can choose from a database of songs, effects, or sound bites. Collaboration is a major incentive — you can do a “duet” with someone by replying to their video, which creates a split-screen diptych, thus feeding into an endless chain of reactions.
Users can also upload their own sounds, so it’s possible to lip-sync to someone else’s original video.
TikTok, on the surface, doesn’t look so different from the litany of other video-centric social media apps that came before it, like Snapchat, Vine, or Dubsmash.
It shares similar pitfalls (privacy, online creeps) and similar assets (like Vine, TikTok has created its own language of comedy), but thanks to its algorithm that makes binge-watching irresistible, as well as a sophisticated array of sound and visual effects, TikTok offers far more possibilities for creators.
What all this means is that TikTok isn’t just the latest app you need to pretend to have heard of to impress Gen Z — it’s one of the most important companies on the planet, and it’s at the forefront of the possible future of social media.
