Can You Make TikTok Videos Go Faster Or Slower?

You’ve found a TikTok post that promises to demonstrate a cool new technique for making your favorite recipe. But then you find yourself watching the content creator just chopping vegetables and doing other prep work for 2-3 minutes before he gets to the important stuff. It’s annoying.

There’s no reason you have to waste your time, though. It’s simple to speed up the boring parts of TikTok content, or slow down a video you’re watching to follow and understand a complicated tutorial.

Here’s what to do.

How to Speed Up TikTok Videos That You’re Watching

It’s understandable if you’ve never discovered this cool technique, because the speed control is hidden.

1. When you find a video that you want to watch at a different speed, tap on the “Share” icon (the curved right arrow on the right side of the screen).
2. A pop-up window will open. Scroll along the bottom row of grey icons until you find the “Playback speed” option.
3. Another popup will open, giving you the choice of playing the video at double speed (2x), 1½ speed (1.5x), or half-speed (0.5x). Select the speed you prefer and close the window.
4. The video you’re currently watching will be shown at your desired speed, but normal-speed playback will resume as soon as you move on in your feed.

How to Speed Up TikTok Videos That You’re Creating

It would have been thoughtful, of course, if the person who produced the cooking video we’ve discussed had sped up the boring parts ahead of time. They may not have known how to do it — but you will, if you learn these simple steps. You can use them to slow down the action, too.

1. After recording a video, tap the “Edit” icon (it looks like a device screen) at the top right of the editing screen.
2. Touch the clip’s video timeline and tap “Split” in the bottom menu.
3. Tap on the part of the video you want to speed up, and then click the “Speed” button in the bottom menu bar.
4. You’ll see a slider bar at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to choose a speed from 1/10th speed to 10x normal speed. Move the dot to your desired speed, exit the selector by pressing the “x” in the corner, and finish editing.

If your goal is to have an entire video play back at a different speed than normal, you can set the record speed in advance. Press the “Speed” icon (a small clock labeled “1x” on the right-hand menu, and then choose to record your content at half-speed, one-third speed, double-speed, or triple-speed. Record your content, and it will automatically play back faster or slower.

There’s usually a way to do what you want on TikTok; you just have to know where to look!