TikTok is giving a lift to the experience of viewing viral short-form videos on desktop. The company says it is bringing what it calls a modular layout to the Tiktok web app, which includes a full-screen LIVE video feed and a floating player that is exclusive to desktop viewing.
The platform has changed the position of the navigation bar as part of the modular design makeover. TikTok says the new design opens the doors for a more immersive viewing experience and better discovery of their respective feeds.
On the left edge of the screen, there’s a persistent pane where users will find all the core controls such as For You, Explore, Messages, profile settings, account suggestions, and LIVE, among others.
Compared to mobile, even the features that are usually a swipe or tap away are all neatly arranged on the Home Screen of TikTok’s desktop client. The engagement tools, such as likes, comments, and sharing are on the right side of the video window.
To make the desktop view even more rewarding, TikTok will let users create custom categories to save their videos and revisit them at their convenience. The feature is similar to Instagram that allows users to create collections, which can be personal as well as shared with mutuals.
For content creators, the web version of TikTok lets them launch a live video in both landscape and portrait orientation. For such videos, mobile users can simply switch their phone’s orientation and watch the live videos in their native format.
Inspired by the picture-in-picture floating window mode on web browsers, TikTok on the web is also getting a floating media player. “This flexible floating window keeps TikTok visible above other windows, allowing you to multitask without missing out on your favorite content,” says the company.
For now, this floating window mode is exclusive to Chrome browser. It is unclear whether TikTok will eventually bring it to other web browsers, too, especially those running the same Chromium engine, such as Microsoft’s Edge.
TikTok returned to the Google Play Store and Apple’s Play Store in the US barely two weeks ago, following a brief shutdown in the US. The spectre of a ban, however, still looms over the platform after it got a temporary reprieve with an executive order that extended the deadline.