The For You feed is the heart of the TikTok experience. It's where people go to discover new interests, and where creators build thriving new communities—like Karim and Jamal (@thecustardco), founders of the family-owned ice cream shop, The Custard Company.

Stories like Karim and Jamal's are possible because of how the For You feed helps people find new content and creators they love, beyond the ones they already know. Today, we're announcing more features to help people personalize their feeds and find their favorite new creators—including a new way to customize content preferences, more powerful keyword filters, and an educational guide to finetuning your For You feed.

New tools to explore your favorite topics

The For You feed empowers discovery by connecting people to great creators and content that are tailored just for them. We offer controls to help people further personalize their experience, and now we're expanding them with a new feature called "Manage Topics." With Manage Topics, you can customize how often content related to over 10 popular topics is recommended in your feed—from Creative Arts, Travel, Nature and Sports.

These settings won't eliminate any topics entirely, but can influence how often they're recommended as your interests evolve over time.

This makes it even easier for communities who love topics like animal history, science and more, to discover creators like @oddanimalspecimens. It adds to the many ways you shape your feed every day—from using other For You feed controls, to liking and favoriting videos, searching for topics you're curious about, or simply enjoying content.

Introducing Smart Keyword Filtering

We're also rolling out AI-powered "Smart Keyword Filters" to help people limit content they don't want to see recommended at all.

To help people personalize their content feeds, we provide keyword filters that will restrict content containing any keyword they add. These have been used to filter over 200M words from feeds globally.

Now, we're rolling out "Smart Keyword Filters," a new setting that uses AI to additionally limit content containing similar keywords like synonyms. The tool shows you which additional keywords are being filtered, and in the months to come you'll also be able to select or deselect specific ones you want to include.

We expect Smart Keyword Filtering to get increasingly precise as more people use it over time. In the months to come, we'll also be doubling the keywords you can add to 200 and making it easier to add them in bulk, to further help people quickly and precisely shape their feeds.

Empowering through education

We're also launching a new educational guide which empowers people with tips and tools to understand and shape their feeds in one easy place. This is part of our continuous effort to help people understand how the For You feed works—which also includes features that show why content was recommended, and educational videos that have received over 180 million views around the world. Through the coming weeks, we'll also be rolling out a fresh set of videos that explain how the For You feed works.

@tiktok Learn how TikTok recommends videos #ForYou ♬ original sound - TikTok

As part of the initiative, we’ve also teamed up with TikTok creator and digital safety advocate, @cathypedrayes, to help bring these new tools to life. In her latest video, she shares tips on how these features can help you take more control over your For You feed and create an experience that feels more personal to you.

@cathypedrayes Does your For You feed need a Spring refresh? TikTok is introducing more tools to personalize your feed and is also launching a new Safety Center Guide to help you understand and customize your feed even further. If you want more or less dancing, sports or want a full reset- here's a look at some of my favorite features.
#tiktokpartner #tiktoktips #FYP #lifehack #didyouknow #checkyoursetting #safetycenterguide #onlinesafety #tipsandtricks ♬ original sound - Cathy

Recommending content responsibly

All of these updates will be launching for both teen and adult accounts, building on the tools and safeguards that help people have a great For You feed experience on TikTok. These include:

  • Applying strict For You feed eligibility standards to restrict content that isn't appropriate for a general audience of people from recommendation in For You feeds, and working to prevent content with mature or complex themes from reaching teens through Content Levels.
  • Offering additional For You feed tools to help people refresh their For You feed, indicate they're "not interested" in a video or turn on Restricted Mode to further limit content that may not be comfortable for broad audiences.
  • Taking steps to interrupt frequent recommendation of some types of content which are fine when seen occasionally, but may be problematic if seen too often—such as extreme fitness-related content.

Together, these updates will further empower the many audiences on TikTok to explore, learn and discover content and creators they love.