TikTok is expanding Manage Topics, a feature that lets you customize how often content in the platform’s top 10 categories surfaces in your feed, like sports, travel, humor, creative arts, and dance. After rolling out a pilot in the US last year, TikTok spokesperson Jessica Allen confirmed to The Verge that it’s now launching globally.
TikTok says the settings “won’t eliminate topics entirely, but can influence how often they’re recommended as your interests evolve over time.” Once you adjust them, TikTok says it “might take some time” for the changes to go into effect. Manage topics also only impact the videos shown on your For You feed – not anywhere else on the platform.
To personalize the topics in your feed, head to your settings and select Content preferences > Manage topics. You can also access the option by tapping the Share button on a post in your For You feed, hitting Why this video > Adjust your For You > Manage Topics. From there, you can move a slider beneath each topic, indicating how often you want to see related videos, and hit Save.
Along with this setting’s wider rollout, TikTok is expanding on its keyword filters that block topics from appearing in your feed. The platform is now using AI for “smart” keyword filters to not only block the specific keyword you enter, but also restrict content with captions, hashtags, or descriptions containing related words. TikTok will show the other keywords that it’s blocking, and will also give you the ability to select or deselect words “in the months to come.” The platform also plans on supporting more than 200 keywords per user, up from 100.
