If you’re a TikTok user, there’s no doubt that this has happened to you: whilst scrolling through your feed in bed or on the couch or on a break, or during an important Zoom meeting, you have to pause and restart a video because the caption or view is obscured by the icons running down the side of your screen. Worry no more.
The Tok has noticed that you don’t like to be distracted when you’re distracting yourself so they’re about to streamline your user experience with their distraction-free “Clear Mode.”
The platform is currently testing the feature, which will clear the user’s screen of the assorted “clutter ” that layers over the videos on their feed — user profile icons, ‘like” icons, comment bubbles, descriptions, etc. Even the username will no longer be visible while the mode is engaged (at least that’s the way it appears in the versions being tested).
Unlike many features the service has introduced recently, such as the Live Subscription function, this feature seems to primarily benefit users rather than the content creators that are TikTok’s bread and butter – it’s fairly difficult to imagine any potential new influencer that would be wild about a feature that hides their username, much less the ability to impulse “like” a video.
So far only a limited amount of users will have access to the function while it’s in testing mode. To find out if the feature is available to you, check under your “Add to Favorites” menu. Once added, users can access the function by tapping and holding the app screen.
As of now, TikTok hasn’t announced when — or even if — the feature will become available to all users.
