A Better Viewing Experience On TikTok: Clear Mode

You don’t have to have an attention disorder to get distracted when watching TikTok videos.

The menus running across the top of the screen (with selections like “Following,” “Shop,” and “For You”), the icons on the bottom (like “Home,” “Create,” and “For You”), and the right-hand icons for following, liking, commenting, and so on, can get extremely annoying — particularly if there are details on the screen that you want to focus on or text you want to read.

Four years after the social media platform was launched, a feature was added that many TikTok users don’t know about. It lets you watch TikTok content with all of the text and icons removed from the screen; it’s similar to entering full-screen mode on your laptop or desktop.

Let’s learn about Clear Mode.

How To Unclutter and Restore Your TikTok Screen

Many of TikTok’s settings and controls require multiple steps to figure out where the heck they hid the action you want to take. Clear Mode is, as much as anything can be on the app, foolproof and simple.

While you have a video open and want the menus to all “go away,” just press the middle of the screen and hold it there for a few seconds, and a pop-up window will open. Find the icon labeled “Clear mode” or “Clear display” and — presto! — all of the distracting stuff on the screen will disappear.

All that remains are the default indicators on your phone, like the clock or the battery indicator, and three controls on the bottom: an arrow that lets you start (or stop) the video, a speed button that allows you to speed up or slow down playback, and an “x” that lets you close Clear Mode.

This feature only works for the video you’re watching. If you scroll to the next post, you automatically leave Clear Mode, and it won’t be re-enabled if you return to the video where you enabled it before.

Those who quickly scroll through their feeds may find using Clear Mode more annoying than all the icons and menus, but the feature has proven to be what many users had wished for.