10 TikTok Tricks You Need to Know: For Beginners

TikTok is a wildly popular social media platform that allows users to create short video clips and add funny, interesting, or cute emojis — but did you know that it has voice effects as well? There are customizable voice effects like helium and robot voices, along with the typical filters like glamour and teeth whitening. These can be used in videos or over text to make your content more entertaining while still accurate!

Voice Effects on TikTok

TikTok has voice effects, despite that it's primarily a video platform. Tap the "+" icon at the bottom left of the screen to record a section of your voice and choose from all sorts of options (like "Caps," "JamesBond," and "Sonic"). Once you have recorded one section, you can repeat it and add other voices to make your unique TikTok voice effect.

Green Screen Effect on TikTok

It's one of the newest features on TikTok, and there are a bunch of fun ways to use it. You can change the background of your video to a green screen and zoom in with your phone's camera so that you appear as part of the screen. Sometimes you can also use it to create special effects like snowflakes or fire, but first, you'll need green screen stickers from the TikTok sticker shop!

Adding Closed Captions

TikTok is a video platform that encourages creativity, so you can often find users making short videos about their daily lives or even featuring music. Add closed captions to your video if you're following along but have trouble hearing the other person's words. Just tap on the icon below the video player and add the caption.

How to Duet

Duets are a huge part of the TikTok experience, and there are many ways to create them. You can use the split-screen feature to have your face split in half and appear as different videos on the same screen, or you can have two videos play side by side in the same video. To duet, you'll need a device that allows you to take a front-facing or selfie photo and transfer it to your phone. Because TikTok videos can have up to five minutes of content, this will help create a duet!

How to React to a TikTok video

It can be difficult to find reaction videos for the latest song, but with TikTok, you can search through different songs by swiping left or right and clicking on the plus icon in the bottom right. When you've found a song or video about which you want to create a reaction video, tap the "..." icon. Then add a personal emoji-like lip closing and red dots as hearts.

Using a TikTok Song From Another Video

Sometimes, users will create music videos using TikTok. They'll post the song on other apps like Musical.ly or YouTube. TikTok allows you to use these songs in your videos by clicking on the "+" icon, searching for the song you want, and tapping "Add." Then, select your song and add a new video clip. Make sure that you tap "Select All" for all of the songs you want to use.

Use Multiple Video Clips for One Audio Clip

You can mix and match clips from different videos to help tell your story. Record clips of yourself singing or dancing along to the song, and use the split-screen feature to make it look like you're singing it with the artist featured in the song. You can even add subtitles.

Stick With Stickers

If you're not used to using emojis in your conversations, TikTok will give you a chance to get familiar. There are a lot of stickers available in the app, including hot dogs, unicorns, and sunglasses — but they can also be used as reactions to videos. Drag and drop the sticker you want onto your screen!

Setting Some Talking Text

TikTok is familiar to most people, but it can be not easy to figure out exactly how it works. That's why a fun trick you can use is the "talking text." Select the person icon at the bottom of your screen, and then tap on the mic icon to add some speaking text to your video. You can type long messages and make your message appear behind the video, making it easier to read and understand.

Turning on Auto Transcription

Auto transcription is a new feature that automatically adds captions to your video as you are recording. It's pretty accurate, but it's a fun way to make your video stand out, especially if you're using special effects. This is available from the Settings menu within the app under "Auto Transcribe."