The TikTok app is segmented into five different tabs that can be found at the bottom of your screen: Home, Friends, the posting page, Inbox, and Profile. The Inbox tab serves as a hub for notifications, direct messages, screen time reports, TikTok Lives, and Stories of those you follow.
The Inbox tab itself is also broken up into its own sections. Here is how to navigate those different sections to make sure you never miss a notification...
The Activities Section on TikTok
When you first navigate to your TikTok Inbox you will see a summary of new notifications appear under New Activities. Only two notifications will appear at a time on this page, and if you have more than two notifications a button will appear to take you to the rest of your new notifications.
Here is how to navigate the Activities section, to get a complete summary of all notifications:
- Open your Inbox.
- Tap Activities or New Activities (depending on if you have new notifications or not). This will bring you to a complete summary of notifications with the most recent at the top.
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- To filter to a specific type of notification, tap All activity at the top of the screen.
- Choose the notification type you are searching for (Likes, Comments, Q&A, Mentions and tags, or From TikTok).
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In the TikTok Inbox you will often see notifications summarized as "[username] and X others." If you would like to see an actual list of every account that liked a TikTok post, you can do so by either clicking "X others" or the three dots that appear next to the profile image previews.
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Your TikTok Activities section is also where you will get screen time reports, if you choose to opt into them. Other notifications include your screentime reports and promotions. TikTok screen time reports can be used to help you limit your time on the TikTok app.
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An important thing to note about Activities: thiis is where you will get notifications of follow requests being approved, but new follower notifications will not appear here. You will find new followers under Messages.
The Messages Section
The Messages section of the TikTok Inbox houses messages between friends, as well as all new follower notifications. New follower notifications will always appear above your first message conversation.
When a new connection is made on TikTok, and you follow someone who follows you back or vice versa, TikTok will create a new message conversation that appears at the top of your conversations—just below New followers. TikTok will include a note asking you to say hi to your new TikTok connection.
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To start a new message conversation, tap the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the Inbox page.
TikTok Lives and Stories
At the top of the Inbox tab you will find the TikTok Lives and TikTok Stories of those you follow. To create your own TikTok Story, you can tap your profile picture which appears in the top-left corner of the Inbox tab.
To watch TikTok Lives and Stories simply tap the profile photo of the account you want to watch.
Knowing How to Manage Your TikTok Inbox
It can be easier than you think to miss a notification on your TikTok account. With follower notifications appearing in a separate section from likes, comments, and mentions, you may miss one.
And if you have a popular account that consistently receives a large number of notifications, it is important to know how to segment notifications into sections that are easier to comprehend and digest.