The @ Sign Used On TikTok: What Does It Mean?

Unless you’re a hermit, you probably use the “@” sign regularly.

In fact, hermits probably used it before they went off the grid, since it’s been commonly utilized in accounting and other disciplines for centuries and it had its own key on manual typewriters (the “@” was usually located right above the “5”.) Some people also regularly use @ as a simple abbreviation for the word “at.”

Today, though, we all use it in email addresses. When the Internet was in its developmental days in the 1970s, the symbol was chosen to represent the break between a user’s name and their host computer. It’s been used that way ever since.

But what does it mean in TikTok posts?

Using the @ Sign on TikTok

In email addresses, the @ sign comes after a user’s name (and before the name of the service that hosts their email account). TikTok users generally put it before a name to “tag” someone else’s TikTok account. (It’s used the same way on most other social media platforms.)

An @ tag can be included in video descriptions, captions, titles, and comments. When you start typing after the @ symbol, a suggestion box will open with the TikTok usernames of people you commonly interact with on the app, including friends and followers. You can either click on the person you want to tag or type in their full username.

Once you tag someone with @, they get a notification in the app telling them in which TikTok content they’ve been mentioned, and the published mention will link directly to the user’s TikTok profile. Tagging someone you don’t know (or don’t know well) is also a great way to attract a user’s attention, possibly leading to friendships or collaborations.

The @ is useful in TikTok searches as well. If you’re trying to find a specific user’s content, you just have to start the search phrase with a tag (@username) and their TikTok videos will be the first results shown. You can also use @ by itself, followed by a search phrase, to narrow down searches to users related in some way to the subject you’re searching for.

You might have assumed that the symbol was used to “call out” TikTok users, but now you know the full story. The @ sign is much more useful and versatile on the app than most people realize.