Katrina's Blog

The Background

Recently, I had to delete the TikTok app off my phone because it just got too addicting and was detrimental for my mental health and productivity. Many of you, like me, have managed to escape from the clutches of TikTok or have never succumbed to its grasp in the first place. However, TikTok and other short-form content videos remain a prevalent way of sharing relatable and funny memes. So, it sucks when your social media-savvy friends want to send you funny videos, but you can’t view them on your phone.

This happened to my friend today in a group chat. One friend sent the following link in attempt to share a funny TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRoUgYWP/

While the rest of us were responding with teehees and hahas, our one friend lamented:

I cant watch the tiktok it wont play without the app 🙁

I knew it was my time to shine by sharing my fun hack, that I will now share with you all, that would allow my friend to view the video on his phone without being forced by TikTok to download the app first.

The Problem

When a TikTok mobile app user goes to share a video via copying the link, they probably hit the Share button followed by clicking Copy Link button:

The link that gets copied look like:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRoUgYWP/

When a non-TikTok mobile app user clicks this shortened link, it redirects them in the browser to:

https://www.tiktok.com/@m3melord1001/video/7237982460368424238?_r=1&_t=8oKeUPhdfNH

This page then prompts them to download the app, and often disallows them from viewing the video altogether.

The Hack

Just remove everything after the ? in the browser URL:

https://www.tiktok.com/@m3melord1001/video/7237982460368424238

In this case, we removed ?_r=1&_t=8oKeUPhdfNH from the end of the URL.

Now, this manually edited link will allow the video to play directly in the browser for the non-TikTok user.

The Explanation

The explanation is that TikTok sucks. Just kidding (not really).

The expanded URL includes extra parameters, _t and _r. It seems like these URL parameters are likely used by TikTok for tracking and managing user sessions. Their presence in the URL helps TikTok optimize and personalize how content is delivered to users. They could have to do with collecting data for engagement analysis, indicating the source of referral of the request, and customizing the user experience based on previous activity. And, of course, they trigger the stupid download prompt for non-app users.

If you know more about the specifics behind these parameters and what they mean, or have any guesses, please feel free to let me know in the comments!

Conclusion

Now you can share this hack with your friends, too, eliciting validating remarks like:

Bro that’s cool

and

delightful! i have now been able to participate in the collective viewing of this tiktok!

Most importantly, now your TikTok-averse friend, too, can participate in the collective viewing of that funny TikTok sent in the group chat, without compromising their digital media consumption integrity, health, and superiority.