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Best Practices for Creating TikTok Effects

Effect Guidelines​

All effects must apply to the Effect Guidelines.

Effect Goals​

  • Interact: The best effects prompt users to interact and engage. Draw users in and give them reasons to play around with the effects you create.
  • Intuitive: Interaction paradigms in effects should be as simple and accessible as possible. Interactions should rely on physicality rather than abstract mappings.
  • Inspire: The most popular effects aren’t necessarily the fanciest ones, but those that empower creators to use them in creative and surprising ways. Effects should lower the barrier of creation and nudge a potential creator to create by offering them a prompt or theme.
  • Innovate: As a pioneer in the augmented reality field, you have the chance to push the boundaries of what can be done in the world of effects. Experiment with new visual and audio formats, storytelling tools, mobile hardware capabilities, and more.
  • Interconnect: TikTok celebrates the diversity of our community. Create effects that are inclusive and bridge cultural or social differences.

Design Principles​

  • Positivity: TikTok is a place for authentic, joyful, and uplifting content. As you create effects, consider how they can empower creators to express themselves, explore their identities, and showcase their creativity in ways that are uniquely TikTok. Focus on promoting a positive self-image and steering clear of narrow beauty ideals. Avoid effects that encourage comparisons or set unrealistic beauty standards. Instead, design effects that help users feel empowered and confident. For instance, avoid effects that alter body shapes to conform to "idealized" standards or reinforce stereotypes. This includes effects that imply certain traits or behaviors are linked to gender, or suggest there is a 'right' way for people to look or act based on their gender identity. Let's focus on fostering inclusivity and self-acceptance through our creative tools.
  • Diversity and inclusivity: When creating effects, ensure they include a variety of skin tones, hairstyles, facial features, body shapes, accessibility levels, and other differences. Avoid effects that reinforce negative or discriminatory stereotypes related to gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, or disability. Focus on empowering users by offering effects that celebrate diversity.
  • Age-appropriateness: Consider the age range of TikTok users when designing effects. Avoid effects that may be inappropriate or confusing for younger audiences. Ensure that effects comply with TikTok's Community Guidelines and are designed with safety and age-appropriateness in mind for all users.
  • Simplicity: Effects should be easy to use. Having too many triggers or complicated UI elements can be disruptive to the overall user experience. When introducing new interactions or mechanics, teach the user in a clear and obvious way.
  • Storytelling: TikTok powers content discovery. An effect is more than just a cool animation – it unlocks innovative ways for a user to tell unique stories. Some of our most popular effects provide built-in narratives by adding a punchline or “wait for it” moment to the video. For example, effects that freeze a video’s subject or dramatically zoom in and out can be used to accentuate a joke or set up a punchline at the end of a video.
  • Creation and consumption: Create effects that are as fun for creators to create with as they are for viewers to watch. Think about elements like color contrast and text legibility.
  • Visuals and audio: Sound and music are essential components of the TikTok experience. Think about how a user might use different types of sounds with your effect.
  • User environment and platforms: Leverage different user positions such as standing up, sitting down, facial, and body movements. Take into consideration the environmental differences such as lighting, background, and noise. Finally, test your effect across devices and operating systems, such as iOS, Android, web, and TV.
  • Physicality: Augmented reality is about integrating the digital with the physical. Create effects that interact with the user or the world, rather than floating in midair (unless there’s a specific reason).
  • Versatility: The more ways to use an effect, the more types of content that can be created. Making effects open-ended and extendable can allows multiple entry points in a TikTok video. For example, with our Green Screen effect users can upload their own content to be used as a background in their story. The versatility of the Green Screen effect has made it a top effect for TikTok video creators the community’s most beloved effect.
  • Remixability: TikTok embraces remix culture – effects like Duet and Stitch are all about sampling and riffing on others’ videos on the TikTok platform. Think about how your effect can encourage users to collaborate and co-create. For more details, you can learn about Duets and Stitches.
  • Repeatability: TikTok users watch a variety of videos each day—ensure your effect remains enjoyable and engaging, whether it's experienced for the first time or revisited later. Think about tying effects to existing trends on TikTok.
  • Failure: Always consider what happens if an effect feature or user interaction fails to register or is triggered accidentally. If you’re creating an effect that has 10 steps and the user messes up step 9, think about letting them try again rather than starting over (unless that’s an intentional part of the effect).

Tips and Tricks​

  • Keep the above design principles in mind when naming and creating effects.
  • Keep the TikTok user interface in mind when creating your effect – avoid placing important design elements in areas that might be covered by buttons or text. Remember, within the Effect House preview panel you can review your effect with the TikTok user interface overlay included.
  • Ensure that the functionality of your effect is clear to both creators and viewers. Provide easy-to-read instructions explaining how to use it.
  • Avoid adding text (such as the effect title) that isn’t an important part of the effect itself – this text can be mistaken for advertising and detracts from the user experience.
  • For gamified effects, avoid over-filtering the creator (e.g., heavy color filters) unless character transformation is part of the experience (e.g., transform into an animal).
  • Avoid using matting within gamified effects to improve performance and device coverage.
  • Ensure you have all necessary rights for any intellectual property included in your effect name or design.