TikTok launches new feature to stop people getting stuck infinitely scrolling
Recular screen time breaks and new digital well-being promps are being launched in the video app
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.TikTok has launched a new feature to stop users scrolling indefinitely.
“In the coming weeks, we’re introducing a tool to let people control how much time they spend on TikTok in a single sitting by enabling regular screen time breaks”, the company wrote in a blog post.
“These prompts will remind people to take a break after a certain amount of uninterrupted screen time, which they can set as they choose.”
A new screen time dashboard will inform users about how much time they are spending on TikTok. This will provide summaries of their daily time spent on the app, the number of times they opened the app, and a breakdown of daytime and night-time usage.
“We’ll also be introducing weekly digital well-being prompts for younger members of our community. When someone aged between 13 and 17 has used the app for more than 100 minutes in a single day, we will remind them of our screen time limit tool the next time they open the app”, the company added.
TikTok has already implemented screen time limits to help people better decide how long they want to spend on the app. For users aged between 13 and 15, push notifications after 9pm are automatically disabled; for those between 16 and 17, it is disabled after 10pm.
Both iPhones and Android phones have built-in screen time tracking that lets users limit the amount of use a particular app gets, as well as scheduling ‘focus’ modes which grey out the icons – making people less likely to click the app.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments