TikTok has introduced video-scrubbing thumbnails, which allow users to locate specific parts of a video. Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, was the first to discover TikTok’s new video-scrubbing thumbnail feature.
TikTok’s new feature started rolling out this week and may not yet be available for all users. The video-scrubbing thumbnails are currently only available for new videos, as the option isn’t present when viewing older videos.
Users have previously been able to fast-forward or rewind through longer videos on the platform, but this feature makes the process more user-friendly.
For example, while watching a cooking recipe video, the users could previously fast-forward or rewind through the video to find a specific moment but would have to do so blindly.
With the new update, users can see what part of the video they’re about to play via the new thumbnails, enabling faster and more precise searching.
The platform is enhancing its video capabilities, and introducing options like scrubbing thumbnails was likely only a matter of time as TikTok wants to attract longer-form video creators.
These content creators typically publish their content on YouTube, which had this option for a while, so it makes sense for TikTok to offer a similar function to establish itself as an attractive alternative option for video creators.
TikTok has constantly rolled out updates that improve the viewing experience for its users ever since it rolled out the 10-minute video limit update. Last month, the platform started testing a new horizontal full-screen mode with select users worldwide.
Despite the rapid growth and constant improvements, TikTok’s parent ByteDance is losing billions each year.
According to the data shown by Qustodio, kids spent more time watching TikTok videos than YouTube videos ever since June 2020. During that month, people aged 4 to 18 spent more minutes daily watching TikTok, which outranked YouTube.
In the years after that, TikTok’s popularity only grew, and at the end of 2021, kids and teens on a global basis spent an average of 91 minutes daily watching TikTok compared with 56 minutes per day they spent watching YouTube.
Both platforms are introducing new features to improve the user experience as they compete for users and try to be the go-to choice for video creators.
YouTube Shorts recently let its users integrate music as it battles TikTok for users, and now TikTok is inching into YouTube’s territory.
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