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How to fast-forward through a TikTok video

How to fast-forward through a TikTok video

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Look for the solid white line

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The TikTok music note logo against a dark background.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok videos aren’t what you would call long, but sometimes you might want to skip a few seconds ahead — especially now that the videos can be up to 10 minutes long. Or you may have a favorite moment that you want to replay over and over and over. Either way, TikTok has a way to go forward and back on its videos.

When you’re playing a TikTok video, look at the bottom of the video for a faint white line. You will probably not see it in all videos; after some experimenting, I found that I was mainly finding it in the longer videos. If you do see it, then you can use it to go forward and back:

  • You should also see a slightly thicker white line progress as the video progresses.
  • Touch the thicker white line and it will highlight, with a dot at the end indicating how far you are in the video.
  • Press the dot and use it to move the video ahead or back.
Shorter TikTok videos may not have the white line.
Shorter TikTok videos may not have the white line.
Longer videos will have a line you can use to move forward or back.
Longer videos will have a line you can use to move forward or back.

Update August 9th, 2022, 1:55PM ET: This article was originally published on July 7th, 2021, and has been updated to account for the increased maximum length of videos.