Introduction
Welcome to a tutorial on using TikTok on your windows computer or Mac. TikTok is taking the world by storm, it is used by millions of people every day to upload amusing and entertaining short videos.
While TikTok is and will always be intended for use on mobile devices such as androids and iPhones, it is still possible to use TikTok on desktops. In fact, there are 2 different ways of doing it and I will show you both down below.
How To Use TikTok In A Desktop Web Browser:
The first way I’m going to show you is the easier of the 2 methods, but it doesn’t have the full features of the TikTok app such as editing your profile. This way is good if you just want to browse trending pages and upload your own videos. To get the full app experience read the 2nd method I share after this one.
Not many people know that you can use TikTok from within any web browser on a PC, you don’t need to install any app to use it.
• On your PC, open up a web browser and go to TikTok.com
• The homepage will show you the “for you” page of TikTok, you can click ‘login’ and sign into your acccount, you’ll then be able to view the personalized for you page as well as see any updates from your subscriptions, check your notifications and upload your own TikToks. However, you cant edit your profile or see DMs.
• This is a weird web view of tiktok, it’s possible to use a trick to make it look like the mobile app.
• To do that, open up the developer options of your browser. If you are on chrome you can get to them by clicking the menu button at the top right of the screen, selecting ‘more tools’ and then ‘developer tools’.
• In the dev tools you just want to enable this button called ‘device toggle toolbar’, this will emulate a phone screen and will make tiktok update to mobile view.
• You can play around with the phone model and sizes of the screen up here.
• We can now use TikTok almost the same as if it was on the mobile app.
• You can browse all the videos on the home page, use the search page to search for users, sounds and hashtags with the mobile feel.
• It’s possible to upload TikTok videos too but to do that we need to exit out of the developer tools and reload the page. If you are logged in, an upload video button should now be there.
• You can upload a video to TikTok like normal here.
How To Get Full TikTok App on PC & Mac
This method of getting TikTok on your desktop will give you the full TikTok android app with all the features such as commenting, DMs, editing your profile etc. The way it works is by downloading an Android emulator. Android emulators are a way of getting an actual version of Android on your computer.
Don’t worry, it is free and safe to use but it does require you to have a fairly good computer to run it. This is the best option if you are going to be using TikTok primarily on your computer, like if your phone has broken for example.
• In order to get the full TikTok app on your PC or Mac, you will need to download an Android Emulator. An android emulator simulates an Android device on your computer, you will be able to access the full Google Play store and use it like you would a normal android.
• There are many different Android emulators, but from my experience, the best one to use is Bluestacks Bluestacks has the best features and doesn’t contain any bloatware or malware as some other ones do. (Another good option is Nox Player.)
• Go to BlueStacks.com. Click the ‘download Bluestacks’ button. The Installer will now download, once it’s done find it from your downloads folder, and then open it.
• From inside the installer click ‘install now. If you’re on Mac you may need to enter your administrator password to continue.
• Bluestacks will now install, it is a fairly big app so it can take a while to get ready.
• If you’re on Mac you will need to click the button to open system preferences and give permission for bluestacks to run properly. Click the padlock icon at the bottom, enter your password and then click the ‘allow’ button.
• Now bluestacks is installed its time to set your preferences. Choose your language and then click lets go.
• In order to download apps from Google Play Store you need to login to a google account. Login to your Google account here or create a new account.
• Once you’re logged in, agree to the terms and conditions.
• Your android emulator is now set up and we can now install TikTok. Open up the Play Store.
• Agree to the terms of service of the playstore.
• Search for TikTok. Click ‘install’.
• If it asks you to add payment info here, just click ‘skip’.
• Now TikTok is installed we can open it.
• Go through the TikTok intro or click skip if you already know how it works. Once you are on the main page, click on the ‘Me’ tab at the bottom right. Click ‘sign up’ , or if you have an account already, click the 3 dots at the top right and then select my account, then on the next page click ‘login’ from the bottom. You can then login with your number or email.
• Once you are logged in you can use TikTok just as if you were on your phone with all the features. You can like videos, comment on them, upload your own, send messages, follow people, edit your profile and everything else!
That draws an end to this tutorial! If you have any questions please leave them in the comments section down below!
