KUALA LUMPUR: From watching musician perform live to hearing a Q&A from new author, or meeting an actor at the stage door following a show--that is what the new TikTok Live feature is all about--to bring that same level of connection to a worldwide audience and allow creators and viewers to interact in real-time.
"Live streaming has become an integral way for creators and viewers to connect authentically, and over the past year the number of people going Live and watching Live has doubled. We greatly value the stories from our community about their experiences and want to empower creators with unique and innovative tools that inspire content creation, foster connections with audiences and encourage exploration.
"The excitement and engagement from the TikTok community is why TikTok continues to invest in new features to aid in safely discovering, creating, and consuming Live videos," said TikTok Malaysia's strategy content manager, Darren Quek.
TikTok Live has brought together a global community with recent experiences such as an innovative concert experience with The Weeknd, an around-the-world museum tour to explore art and culture, and
the recent TikTok Music Night Asia #UrbanBeats featuring Malaysian artists such as Yonnyboii, Zynakal, Asyraf Nasir, and Bunga Isme.
Recently launched in selected markets, the Live Events is a new tool that lets creators schedule, manage and promote Live videos. It is a great way for creators and fans to easily connect ahead of an upcoming Live stream. From musicians and artists to non-profits and museums, the possibilities for Live Events are endless.
Nobody wants to miss any real-time Live stream, but what happens if you are in the middle of watching a Q&A or a performance and the group chat is blowing up? Instead of missing a second of the stream, TikTok users now can seamlessly continue watching Live videos across their device with the Picture-in-Picture feature. The feature is both iOS and Android supported.
The Go Live Together feature on the platform gives users the ability to easily go live together. This means more chances for interactions, twice as many behind the scenes reveals, and more ways to connect with top creators while the Live Q&A allow hosts to easily engage with and respond to viewers' questions in real time. The suite of tools helps hosts to easily select, showcase, and answer questions from fans while Live.
Rolling out soon, TikTok users will be able to find and tune into Live videos conveniently from the For You and Following pages and to help hosts focus on entertaining and engaging the community, they can now, ahead of a livestream, assign a person they trust to help them manage their streams by tapping Settings on the right side of the livestream launch screen.
During the Live, both the host and the person helping can mute and block users to help keep the stream welcoming and civil. As Live provides creators the opportunity to share more of themselves with the TikTok community, TikTok is mindful that some comments or words may seem innocuous to some but are hurtful to others.
To protect against this, in the settings tab of the Live launch screen, hosts can turn off comments or add up to 200 terms into the keyword filter to limit those comments in the chat. Words can be added to the list throughout the livestream by hosts and the person helping them. Once a livestream starts, TikTok creators are able to focus on entertaining their viewers because negative or abusive comments undermine the passion and energy creators put into their live streams, and viewers will now be prompted to reconsider the impact of their words before posting a potentially unkind or harmful comment.
TikTok will also be having additional safeguards and policies for Live, including requiring accounts to be 16 or older to host a livestream.
TikTok also prohibits gift-baiting (the solicitation of gifts or engagement) as well as fraudulent behaviour or scams.
Further, if TikTok identifies an account that impersonates or misleads our community about their identity, TikTok will remove the account.
TikTok is committed to maintaining the joyful, supportive, and inspiring community that exists on TikTok while building new relationships with more creators, artists, brands, and viewers through products like TikTok Live. Whether on the For You Page (FYP), scrolling through the Discover Page, or watching a TikTok Live, TikTok is excited about the possibilities of expanding the platform to an ecosystem at the centre of entertainment, the creator economy, and technology.