The "For You" page.

Sure its just another algorithmic-based feed. But in my experience (and from talking to a few ppl who enjoy TikTok), the For You page is a differentiator. It's like a combination of what's trending, what's recent (time wise), and what you've spent time interacting (watching, liking, commenting) with previously.

Again all platforms do some form of this, but just saying TikTok does it in a pretty addicting way.

Also combine that with the fact that TikTok videos are so incredibly short that by the time they're over, you haven't even decided whether or not you liked it (no doubt by design), which means you can endlessly consume content.

Also, I've heard that TikTok has better (read: better for comedy-style content) tools to edit videos in the app

I seem to be the only person here who actually uses tiktok. What makes tiktok different is the musical background (somehow people never mention this when comparing it to vine), the fyp algorithm being incredibly good, and the various communities built around certain niches. It's night and day compared to other apps.

idk whenever and whomsoever's phone i look at it's always just pushing videos of scantily clad underage gals dancing to whatever song is popular att. you have to actively hide that stuff/follow creators and hit "only people i follow" to see any actually creative|interesting stuff.

surprised there hasn't been any controversy about that - tiktok is a predator's paradise.

The discovery tab (For You) is awesome. Its the first social app where the discovery tab is better than your feed, so much more that you can actually use it without following anyone. It's quite addictive too, you can easily spend half an hour watching videos.

The way the discovery tab works also created a meta game: Alt TikTok, Deep TikTok, Elite TikTok, ...

The exclusivity aspect is there too, very few users are over 30, but it's not the driver.

Can you give some examples of alt tiktok, deep tiktok, elite tiktok.

alt tiktok is mostly some counter culture users between the ages of 16 and 30. dyed hair, 90s influences, and lqbtq+ supportive. It's a whole aesthetic and rallies against "straight tiktok". You dont want to get stuck on a straight tiktok algorthmic FYP (for you page) feed. Other popular mini tiktok areas include frogtiktok and the holy grail, prison tiktok.

deep tiktok is weird video effect stuff, deep fried meme kinda stuff... I dont want it.

so...like every online community? this isn't rare or novel

tbh it seems like the distinction being made by the stuff about 'alt-lit twitter' and 'weird-facebook' from a few years back

https://stayhipp.com/media/tiktok/what-is-alt-elite-tiktok/

TikTok seems to be more specialized on addictiveness: auto-play unlimited stream of short videos. It's all about removing friction, and TikTok has a good recommendation system.

It's twitter but video in other words

Creation tools and licenses to large music library that you can leverage. This is a key part of differentiation.

Besides recommendations that actually work like everyone else is saying, the "sound sharing" / "original sound" feature (don't know what it's officially called) is pretty unique, and it both encourages creation of new videos and leads to virality. If you want to make tiktoks and don't know what else to do, you can just do a dance that someone else started or re-act an existing tiktok with the same audio, perhaps putting your own spin or personality onto it. And from the other direction, if you see a funny or interesting tiktok, it's one button to see all videos made with the same audio. Also, it works -- everything in the UI is snappy, videos load even faster than YouTube, particularly on bad connections.

From what I've heard (besides the points mentioned here) the dubbing/scene editing capabilities are on-point (which is the big point of Tiktok

Technically, probably very little.

Practically I think it's more diverse content and easier access to other people/fame/glamour for kids than Instagram, Snapchat, or even YouTube/Twitch/etc, since those platforms have been cornered by an existing group of "influencers."

It's probably just a different kind of dopamine hit that kids can't get elsewhere.

Technically, TikTok is better at loading video than any other app I’ve used. Seeing a loading state on a video is so rare it makes me think something is wrong when I see it. And its recommendation engine (for you page) blows everyone else out of the water.