TikTok starts rolling out feature that lets you customize your ‘For You’ topics

TikTok has now quietly introduced a new feature called “Manage Topics”. It allows you to fully customize the topics or the type of content you see on the For You page, where TikTok shows you recommendations. You can now customize the content shown there, and you get the option to see more or less content on certain topics. The new feature is currently initially rolled out for users in the US, and will be coming to more countries soon. You can now customize your For You feed in TikTok to see more topics like sports, dance, food, humor, current affairs, and travel.

You can access the new feature by going to Settings and then choosing the “Content Preferences” option. You then have to click or tap on the “Manage Topics” option to see the customization page.

You have a slider that allows you to adjust how much you want or if you don’t want to see a certain topic on your For You page. As a default, all sliders are set in the middle, and you can tweak them. If you don’t know a certain category or topic, you have an information button next to each. For example, if you click on the Creative arts topic for information, you will learn that this topic includes tutorials related to painting, drawing, and graphic design.

This section and the customizations you make there will not impact the content you see from the accounts you have followed. On top of that, it’s important to note that the settings applied there won’t immediately show up on your For You page, and it will take some time for the platform to personalize your new page.

I personally think this option is great and would be very useful for people who like more control over what they see on TikTok. However, hopefully, it works as intended and really takes into account what you prefer. I may not use TikTok, but when I set preferences for ads on Google, they’re not readily respected… so I hope TikTok’s solution is more straightforward and acts just as you’d expect.