TikTok‘s infinitely scrolling vertical feed is designed with mobile consumption in mind, but the beleaguered app wants to reach viewers on other devices as well. To attract more traffic on the browser-based version of its platform, TikTok is bringing an intuitive new design to its desktop hub.
According to a Newsroom post, the new TikTok.com will feature a “modular design” that repositions the navigation bar to provide viewers with a distraction-free experience on their computer screens. The video player at the center of that layout will be “floating,” allowing users to keep their eyes on their For You Page as they visit other websites. A new Collections feature — which resembles a similarly named product on Instagram — will let users compile their favorite TikToks in a single location.
The changes coming to TikTok.com resemble the updates YouTube made to its TV app in November 2022. That’s when the Google-owned hub rolled out a new design that refitted Shorts for viewership on bigger screens. The update has helped YouTube increase its traffic on TVs, and TikTok could be hungry for its own big-screen blowup (especially as more workers return to offices and the desktop devices therein).
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
Aside from those general advantages, TikTok has some specific priorities that help explain the rationale behind its redesigned website. The growth of TikTok Live has turned the app’s vertically-oriented streams into lucrative opportunities for creators. To bolster that community, TikTok has progressively increased the max length of its uploads, doled out rewards to long-form creators, and implemented products that are essential parts of the monetization ecosystem on streaming platforms like Twitch.
But if TikTok really wants to compete with Twitch, it needs to be active on desktops, where Twitch first rose to prominence before expanding to mobile about eight years ago. Improvements to the browser-based TikTok experience will make it a more attractive option for video game streamers. To sweeten the pot even further, TikTok is adding an option to stream in a landscape orientation rather than portrait mode.
Then there’s the TikTok ban of it all. It’s possible that TikTok would have updated its web-based experience even if the U.S. government wasn’t threatening to ban the app. In a post-ban world, however, users would probably find it more intuitive to install a virtual private network (VPN) on their desktop device rather than their phone. In that scenario, the browser version of TikTok could become a key destination for displaced viewers.
