Using TikTok with Buffer
With a 6.92% average engagement rate and a daily 52-minute user average, TikTok is an incredibly powerful platform. Prescheduling your TikTok posts via Buffer will help you publish posts to this popular platform at a consistent rate (did we mention that TikTok has over 1 billion active users?!).
📝 Scheduling and publishing to TikTok is only available on our new plans. On a Legacy plan? Get in touch with us at hello@buffer.com to discuss your options!
- Starting January 19, 2025, TikTok will no longer be available for users to download in the U.S. You will still be able to use the app if you have it, but you will not be able to update the app. Note: this ban does not affect Buffer users’ ability to connect TikTok as a channel if you already have a TikTok account. Learn more here.
In this article:
- Connecting and refreshing your TikTok
- Scheduling TikTok posts
- Media specifications for TikTok
- How to add a thumbnail to your video
- Engaging with TikTok posts
- TikTok analytics
- TikTok error library
How TikTok works with Buffer
When it comes to TikTok, there are two types of publishing:
Automatic publishing - schedule your video in Buffer and we'll automatically publish it for you.
Notification publishing - schedule your video in Buffer and you'll get a notification on your phone when it's time to publish your Short and you can finish publishing in the TikTok app.
You'll see these options in the composer where you can either choose Automatic (if your post can be scheduled automatically) or Notify Me (if you either choose to get a mobile notification for your post or if it contains content that can't be published automatically, such as videos that are over the duration limit).
These features are available for TikTok
| Publishing | Analytics | Engagement |
| ✓ |
Connecting and refreshing your TikTok
Head to your Channels area to connect your TikTok account: https://account.buffer.com/channels
You can connect multiple TikTok accounts to Buffer. To make sure Buffer knows which one want to connect, log in to that TikTok account in another browser tab before trying to connect it to Buffer.
To see a step-by-step guide and troubleshooting steps, check out the article: Connect your channels to Buffer.
If your connected TikTok account requires a refresh, check out the article Refreshing a channel in Buffer.
⚠️ Trial users will need to verify their email addresses in order to connect more than 3 TikTok accounts. Here's how to go about Verifying your Buffer email address.
Scheduling TikTok posts
Check out the table below to see which features are available while scheduling posts for TikTok.
The "best time to post" feature in Analyze is not available for TikTok, but for advice on creating an optimal posting schedule, check out our blog post: The Best Time to Post on TikTok
| Features & good-to-knows | Notes |
| Scheduling posts (web) | Check out our step-by-step guide to scheduling posts on any social channel or peruse TikTok-specific details below. |
| Scheduling posts (mobile) | Need help scheduling posts to TikTok on the Buffer mobile app? Check out our guide to scheduling posts on the Buffer mobile app. |
| Tagging / mentions | To tag / mention another TikTok account, type in the exact handle. Once published to TikTok, the account you mentioned will become hyperlinked. Learn more about adding mentions (tags) in posts here. |
| Hashtags | While your hashtags won't hyperlink in the composer, they'll hyperlink once published to TikTok. Learn more about how hashtags work in Buffer here. |
| Daily posting limit | 25 posts per 24 hours. Learn more about Daily posting limits here. |
| Character limit | 2200 characters per post. Learn more about character limits for each social network here. |
| Adding music/trending audio, stickers, or polls | Due to API limitations, we do not have access to TikTok's audio/music library, polls, or stickers. However, you can schedule your post using the Notify Me option in the composer.
When it's time to post, you'll get a notification on your phone. You can tap it to copy your post over to TikTok, add your music, and finish posting. Learn more about Using notification publishing here. |
Media specifications for TikTok
*TikTok supports both images and videos on the desktop version of Buffer. Our mobile app currently supports video posts on TikTok (image support coming soon!)
| Videos | Images* | |
| Number allowed per post | 1 |
Up to 10 |
| Video length | Between 3 seconds and 10 minutes | N/A |
| File size | 1GB or less, and must have a minimum height and width each of 360px | up to 20MB |
| Dimensions / Aspect ratio | Minimum height and width of 360 pixels | Maximum resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels or 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| File types supported | MOV, MP4, or WEBM | JPG and webp (HEIC and PNG will be converted to JPG) |
| Custom thumbnail supported | The frame you select within Buffer's composer will be used as the video's thumbnail when viewing your TikTok profile. | N/A |
| Optimal number of frames | Between 23 FPS and 60 FPS | N/A |
| Autoplay in the feed | Yes | N/A |
| Canva integration | No | Yes |
| Alt text | It is not possible to add alt text to TikTok videos via Buffer. Learn more about adding alt text to your images here. |
Not supported due to API limitations. |
The "Promote" feature in TikTok does not work on posts sent through Buffer. To promote your posts, you would need to publish the post natively through TikTok.
How to add a thumbnail to your video
By default, the first frame of the video (0 seconds) will be used as the thumbnail. If you'd like to change your thumbnail, you'll follow these steps:
- Once your video has finished uploading, click Edit Thumbnail,
- Drag the slider to the position in the video you'd like to use as the cover/thumbnail image.
- Click Save.
Engaging with TikTok posts
Buffer's engagement features are only available for Facebook and Instagram.
TikTok analytics
You can view basic analytics for each of your TikTok posts' metrics by heading to the Publish tab and then the Sent tab.
📝 A quick note: TikTok views are only counted if the viewer is logged in and viewing via their mobile app. Views on the web or while not logged in aren't counted.
TikTok advanced analytics are unavailable within Analyze due to limitations with TikTok's API. We understand the importance of these metrics and are keeping a close eye on TikTok in case this ever changes, and we're able to provide support for this. If it helps, you can keep an eye on our public roadmap for updates!
TikTok error library
We don't currently have an error library for TikTok. Feel free email our Customer Advocates at hello@buffer.com for help with posting or anything else!
📝 Do you have a TikTok feature suggestion? We’d love for you to submit or upvote it here on our feature suggestions board.