A Mysterious New Icon On TikTok: The “Yellow Eye”

It doesn’t take long for new TikTok users to figure out what many of the app’s icons represent.

Tapping the red heart indicates that they liked a post, as it does on most social media platforms. The bookmark lets them “favorite” a TikTok video; three dots in a thought bubble means “comment”; the sweeping right arrow lets them send a TikTok post to someone else, repost it, or save it; and the magnifying glass leads to the TikTok search function.

Those icons have been around forever, but more recently, a new one began popping up next to TikTok usernames; it’s only visible to content creators who check activity on their videos, and there’s never been an official clarification on its meaning. Creators have been trying to figure out what it means for more than a year.

Here’s the consensus.

What the Yellow Eye Appears To Mean on TikTok

Almost everyone who’s offered their opinion on the “yellow eye” agrees on one thing: the icon indicates that a TikTok follower has watched the video that the creator uploaded.

After that, interpretations vary. This seems to be what they have in common, though: the icon shows that one of their TikTok fans has watched the video but hasn’t interacted with it by liking it, commenting on it, or reposting it.

Theories begin to diverge after that.

• Many people report that the yellow eye only remains visible for seven days, but others say the icon is there for much longer.
• The majority of users who’ve spent time evaluating the icon’s meaning believe it only appears if a viewer has watched the video all the way to the end. Others aren’t so sure, suggesting that it means that a user only watched a portion of their vid, or that they also visited the creator’s TikTok profile.
• Some people claim that the eye is orange rather than yellow, too.

Quite a few influencers and creators say the new icon helps them evaluate the performance of their TikTok content. They use the information to tell them which videos were engaging enough to receive likes or other engagements, and which were enticing enough to earn views but not further interaction.

The appearance of the new icon has also triggered resentment among some content producers. They’ve become angry at the followers who appear to have been interested in a post, but not interested enough to like or comment on it (which would boost the creator’s important TikTok metrics).

In any event, it appears that the discussion, debate, and controversy won’t die down until — or unless — TikTok eventually discloses the real meaning of the “yellow eyes.”