TikTok is testing a “repost” button in its app that allows users to quickly re-share a clip with their followers. The new feature, which the company described as an early test, isn’t available to everyone yet, though it appears to be cropping up for a number of users over the last several days.
“Currently, we’re experimenting with a new way for people to share TikTok videos they enjoy,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. The feature appears as a yellow “repost” button alongside the app’s other sharing features. TechCrunchreports that reposting a clip won’t publish it to your profile, but it will push the video to the “For You” feeds of your friends. You can also add a brief comment that will appear with the clip so your friends can see “why you reposted this video.”
Screenshot via TikTok
While TikTok has long been known for users endlessly remixing and re-sharing each other’s clips, the repost button is the first time the app has had something akin to a retweet – the ability to quickly re-share a video from your feed as is. As TechCrunch points out, TikTok may be treading carefully with the feature as making it too easy to recycle posts could pollute users’ “For You” feeds, which are known for being hyper-personalized.
That could be why the company is limiting the visibility of reposts to friends who follow each other, at least for now. Elsewhere, the company is looking into other ways of mixing up the types of videos people see in their recommendations, including limiting “clusters” of potentially problematic content.
