TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the world today, with over a billion users producing millions of videos every day. But aside from just uploading a basic video, understanding a few key hacks for TikTok editing can make a huge difference to the quality of that content. Armed with these tips, you can rake in views—and followers—in no time.

The TikTok Editing Hack: What Is It?

When using the app, you want to make sure you’re getting the most of all of the different features it has to offer, and a TikTok editing app or two can do the trick.

What do TikTokers use to edit their videos? In addition to the app, you can use special TikTok editing software to create content, including iMovie, Splice, and Adobe Rush. However, many of these apps cost money or require payment for certain editing features. The good news though is that you can get any editing done within the app itself without spending a cent.

Learn About TikTok

​​TikTok: What is it & How Does it Work?

How to Do It

How does it actually work to take on TikTok editing? The app provides a series of incredible features, including sounds, visual effects, and filters to make videos truly one-of-a-kind. While it takes time to build up a signature editing style in the app—which is obtained through a lot of trial and error—a few key hacks can save you plenty of time during the editing process while helping videos turn out so much better.

Step 1: Save Any Favorite Filters, Effects, and Sounds in Advance

tiktok discover page

Take advantage of the fact that TikTok allows you to bookmark what you like so that you can include it when you’re editing later. It’s easier to create great content when it’s already at your disposal and organized.

Step 2: Use a Regular Phone Camera App to Shoot Footage

tiktok vs camera

Just because TikTok allows you to record videos within the app itself doesn’t mean you have to! In fact, filming with a normal phone camera app makes the process of editing in TikTok much easier. This is especially a life-saver if you’re filming longer videos that require more cuts; it’d be terrible to accidentally lose that footage in the app and realize it wasn’t saved.

Step 3: Switch on the Beauty Filter

tiktok filter

People have many thoughts on whether or not the app’s facial beauty filter is an extra pick-me-up or reinforcing harmful aesthetic ideals, but it’s there if you really want to use it.

Step 4: Use the Captions Feature

tiktok captions

One new addition to TikTok’s editing suite that’s an absolute time-saver: Auto-captions. Adding closed captioning to videos is a wonderful way to ensure that content is accessible to all users. That way, everyone can understand what’s said within a clip.

Until recently, you had to create your own captions manually using the app’s text feature. As you can imagine, that was a wildly time-coming process. Now, with just a few quick clicks, the app auto-generates captions. It even allows you to edit the transcript in case a few words are off.

Step 5: Decide How People Can Interact With Individual Videos

tiktok video posting

When putting together captions and hashtags for videos, TikTok provides the ability to decide how users can interact with that specific piece of content. You can enable or disable comments, Stitch, and Duet features. And you can set the privacy level for each video. Even better, you can change these settings even after your videos go up.

With just a few of these key tips and tricks to edit TikTok videos online, it’s easy to take your content to the next level without much extra effort.

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Written by:

Lily Herman