Video sharing site TikTok is enhancing its personalised content feed, allowing users to further shape the content that they see.
The company said it would add two new features to help people further personalise their feeds, with the ability to manage topics and filter out certain keywords now available.
Manage Topics will allow people to customise how often content related to subjects such as creative arts, travel and sports appear in their feeds. More than 10 popular topics are included.
TikTok said the settings wouldn’t eliminate the topics from feeds entirely, but it would affect how often they appeared in feeds.
TikTok already offers keyword filters to help limit content from recommendations, but the new Smart Keyword Filters will offer a more finely tuned way to impact content through AI. The smart filters will pull in similar keywords, such as synonyms, and will become more precise over time, TikTok said.
“To give people more fine-grained ways to shape their experience in the months to come, we’ll also be doubling the number of keywords that can be filtered to 200,” TikTok said in a blog post.
The “For You” feed is central to TikTok’s user experience, allowing people to find new content. It already has a number of ways to personalise the feed, from previous viewing habits to liking and favouriting other content.
“The For You feed is why TikTok is a place like no other for people to discover new interests and creators to grow thriving communities,” said Adam Presser, head of operations and trust and safety for TikTok. “We’re thrilled to expand the tools and resources that empower people to find their favourite creator, shape their ideal For You feed experience and explore safely in a place tailored just for them.”
The social media giant has implemented a number of changes in recent months to boost the site’s privacy and safety, including interrupting content with planned “meditation breaks” for younger users, and the ring-fencing of user data to appease authorities in both the US and the EU.
