TikTok is rolling out new features aimed at boosting social interaction and collaborative content discovery on its platform. The company has globally launched "Shared Collections," a new tool designed for users to organize and share TikTok content with friends and family. Additionally, TikTok has teased the upcoming "Shared Feeds," which will enable users to watch personalized video content together, and introduced digital greeting cards.
Shared Collections: Collaborative Content Curation
Building on its existing individual Collections feature, which allows users to save videos into custom folders, Shared Collections takes this functionality a step further. Users can now create collaborative spaces to share ideas and inspiration with their close connections. For instance, families can organize cookie-swap plans or holiday dinner ideas, while friends might curate decor inspiration or secret Santa suggestions.
This feature is designed to help users stay organized as they discover and save content on TikTok. As the company explained in a blog post, "Whether it’s content from their favorite creators, inspiration for a home design project, or a new skill they’re learning together, Shared Collection makes it easy for people to stay organized as they discover and save on TikTok."
To create a Shared Collection, users must mutually follow each other. These collections can be kept private between friends and family or made public. Shared Collections are now available globally for accounts aged 16 and above.
Shared Feeds: Watching Together
Set to launch in the coming months, Shared Feeds represent TikTok's vision for communal content discovery. Users will be able to generate these interest-based feeds within one-on-one direct messages. Shared Feeds will curate new content specifically tailored to the combined tastes of both users, drawing from their TikTok activity, including likes, watches, and comments. This could encompass anything from sports highlights and winter activities to videos from their favorite creators.
Each Shared Feed will offer a daily selection of 15 videos, ensuring a fresh, curated experience rather than a continuous stream. The functionality bears a resemblance to Instagram Reels' "Blend" feature, which also creates personalized Reels feeds for friends.
To initiate a Shared Feed, a user sends an invitation to another. Once accepted, they can create the feed and discuss the content directly within their DMs. After both participants have viewed all the videos, they can access "Shared Likes" history, providing metrics on which videos they both enjoyed.
Digital Greeting Cards
In another move to enhance in-app communication, TikTok has also introduced digital greeting cards. Users can now select a greeting card inside their chats, compose a message, and send it. The recipient will then receive the message accompanied by a festive animation, adding a personal touch to digital interactions.
