TikTok makes it easy for you to start finding friends and adding followers as soon as you get onto the social media platform. While you’re still signing up for a TikTok account, you’re asked if you want to “sync” your account with the contacts listed in your phone or with your Facebook friend list; syncing gives the app permission to access your existing contacts.
It uses that information to recommend people who you already know to be your potential TikTok followers or friends, allowing you to start building relationships on the platform immediately. If you didn’t say “yes” initially, you can easily sync your phone and account at any time from your TikTok profile page.
Many people find the platform’s suggestions extremely helpful. It can otherwise be overwhelming to try and find like-minded friends on the app, since you’d have to sort through the system’s 2+ two billion TikTok users to make connections.
If you take advantage of syncing, though, you may see something odd. TikTok sometimes suggests accounts owned by people you don’t know — but they’re labeled “from your contacts.”
What’s up with that?
The Meaning of “From Your Contacts” On TikTok
As you navigate TikTok, you’ll often see recommendations for friends or followers that are identified as being “from your contacts.” The natural assumption would be that they’re either people whose phone number or email is saved in your device, or mutual followers from Facebook.
The system goes much further than that, though.
As long as a TikTok user has the “Suggest your account to others” setting enabled, that allows the system to recommend their TikTok account to you. And it doesn’t have to be someone from your contacts, either.
The app hasn’t confirmed it, but it’s widely been observed that TikTok sometimes suggests friends of your friends as well. In other words, if you have “person A” in your phone’s contacts, and “person A” has “person B’s” email address in their phone, you might see a recommendation labeled “from your contacts” that you follow “person B” — even if you’ve never met them before.
That answers many peoples’ common questions about how the app can suggest a person they knew in elementary school but haven’t been in touch with for 15 years, or recommend one of their friend’s co-workers. The answer is simple: they probably have a mutual acquaintance who has both peoples’ numbers in their phones.
In short, you may not want to automatically follow a “from your contacts” TikTok recommendation. First, confirm that it’s someone you actually know and want to connect with on the platform.
Where Else Do TikTok Recommendations Come From?
You probably know that the TikTok algorithms track your viewing history. They use the data to show TikTok videos that you’d probably be interested in on your For You page (FYP).
That tracking plays a role in the algorithms’ choices of suggested accounts, too. As they build a profile of the type of TikTok posts you like, they look for and recommend content creators who regularly upload material that fits your viewing profile.
It gets a little spookier, too; the system also considers the TikTok content that your contacts have engaged with. If a large number of them have enjoyed a video, the algorithms assume that you might like it as well. You’re likely to see that video pop up in your feed.
This may all seem a little like “Big Brother” to you. If you find the “cross-pollination” objectionable, you can prevent some of it from happening by rejecting the app’s request to let it access your contacts.
Tracking your preferences, however, is a big reason why TikTok has become so successful. Most users love the fact that their FYP is primarily populated by content that they’re interested in — and that can only happen if the algorithms track all of your activity. In short, it’s part of the deal when you sign up for a TikTok account.
About the Author
Peter Hasselworth is a contributor at iDigic, sharing valuable insights about Instagram growth and social media marketing strategies.