TikTok unwatched video tab

If you aren’t terminally online and following the news, you might be surprised to learn that TikTok is well on its way to being banned (or at least sold) in the U.S. Whether or not I believe the platform should go away is a subject that would require a lot more thought and writing than I’m willing to do right now.

TikTok is an app I have constantly fought against using for the past few years. I have an account, but I rarely check it because I know it would suck me in if I did. On occasion, a friend will send me a video and I’ll check it and then exit the app as quickly as possible, lest the algorithm pull me in.

Sending people videos on TikTok is interesting because from what I’ve seen it doesn’t create a message history like Instagram does. This got me wondering, what would happen if you could see every person you’ve sent a video to and whether or not they opened the link and if so, how much they watched.

I’d venture to guess this would out many people who play nice and act like they watch a video, or maybe they only look at the first few seconds of it. Regardless, it would be cool to see how TikTok might use video sharing as a way to start 1:1 conversations (but if they haven’t done it by now, I doubt it’s a priority).

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