TikTok quietly added a fast-forward option, and it's a game-changer
TikTok became a massively popular social media app because of its short-form video content. However, as time has gone by, TikTok videos keep getting longer, with some videos as long as ten minutes. If you don't want to sit through lengthy videos, TikTok has a solution.
This week, while doing my daily doom-scrolling on TikTok, I accidentally clicked on my screen and triggered a "2X" speed icon that sped up my video. When I tried doing the same motion again, I realized that TikTok quietly implemented a playback speed control.
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To activate the 2X playback button, all you need to do is tap and hold the lower left-hand corner of your screen. As soon as you do that, the 2X symbol will come up and play your video at twice the speed.
I demonstrate how to use the feature in the video below using a video from ZDNET's TikTok, even though you'll likely want to watch every second of those.
Unlike the previous scrub button that allowed you to skip between the video, with the playback button, you don't need to miss parts of the video just to get through it. Instead, you can still listen to the video's audio, just at a faster speed.
This is especially useful for storytimes in which creators are taking too long to get to the point.
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TikTok has yet to officially unveil the feature, with no mention in its recent version histories, which claim that the September updates only "squashed bugs for better experience" and added a way to "quickly find and tag your friends in comments."
Even though TikTok hasn't announced this feature, if you find that you don't have access, downloading the most recent version of TikTok should do the trick.