How to Make Your TikTok Account More Private (Easier to be Anonymous)

If you’re looking to sneak a peek at your ex’s TikTok or accidentally check out the story of that old friend you’d rather not run into, keeping your account under wraps is a must. Who wants their personal info on display, right? Whether it’s for a bit of covert browsing or simply to keep things private, many young folks are all about that stealth mode on TikTok. In this article, you’ll find easy steps to make your TikTok account more private.

With just a few tweaks to your settings, you can keep your profile safe while still enjoying all the creative fun the platform has to offer. So, if you’re ready to keep your TikTok experience just for you—and maybe avoid some awkward encounters. Let’s get started!

How to Make Your TikTok Account More Private?

Switch Your Account to Private

One of the easiest ways to keep your TikTok life more private is by setting your account to private. This option allows you to control who can follow you, view your videos, watch your live streams, and see your liked content, as well as your followers and following lists. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Profile tab.
2. Tap the three-line icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Select Settings and privacy.
4. Tap Privacy under the Account section.
5. Finally, toggle on the switch next to Private account under Discoverability.

Keep in mind that if you switch to a private account, your current followers will still be able to see your content. If there’s someone you don’t want following you anymore, you’ll need to remove them manually.

Keep Your Liked Videos Under Wraps

If you want to keep your quirky tastes or secret obsessions to yourself, you can easily hide your liked videos from your followers. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Profile tab.
2. Tap the three-line icon in the top-right corner and select Settings and privacy.
3. Go to Privacy, then choose Liked videos under the Interactions section.
4. When the Who can watch your liked videos menu pops up, select Only you.

Now your liked videos are just for your eyes only!

Turn Off Your Activity Status to Stay Under the Radar

We’ve all been there—saying you’re “heading to bed” while secretly scrolling through TikTok for hours. The next thing you know, your friend is calling you out because TikTok told them you were still online. Yikes!

To avoid those awkward moments, you can turn off your activity status. Here’s how:

1. Go to your Profile in the bottom-right corner.
2. Tap the three-line icon in the top-right corner of your profile.
3. Select Settings and privacy, then tap Privacy.
4. Finally, toggle off the switch next to Activity status under Discoverability.

Just a heads-up: turning this off means you won’t be able to see others’ activity status either, so you’ll lose the ability to check if someone’s online or when they were last active. But hey, peace and quiet, right?

Control Who Can Send You Direct Messages

While sharing TikTok videos with friends via DMs is fun, no one wants their phone buzzing nonstop with message requests from strangers—especially after commenting on a video.

Luckily, TikTok lets you control who can send you direct messages, giving you the power to keep those unwanted requests at bay. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the Profile tab and tap the three-line icon on your profile.
2. Select Settings and privacy, then tap Privacy.
3. Tap Direct messages under Interactions.
4. Next, tap Allow direct messages from. You’ll see four options: Everyone, Suggested friends, Friends, and No one.
   • For privacy, Friends is a great choice. If you want to stop messages completely, select No one.

This simple step helps you control who can slide into your DMs and keeps your TikTok experience more peaceful.

Turn Off Read Receipts for Messages

We’ve all been there—watching a TikTok someone sent you, thinking you’ll reply later, only to forget about it entirely. Meanwhile, the sender can see you’ve opened their message, and they’re probably wondering why you haven’t responded yet.

To avoid the awkwardness of leaving people hanging, you can turn off the read status so no one knows when you’ve seen their messages. Here’s how to do it:

1. Tap on the Profile tab at the bottom of your screen, then click the three-line icon in the top-right corner.
2. Go to Settings and privacy > Privacy > Direct messages.
3. Toggle off the switch next to Read Status under Message preferences.

Keep Your Following List Private

Want to keep your following list to yourself? Whether it’s to avoid questions about who you follow or just to keep things more private, TikTok lets you hide your following list from others.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Tap on Profile at the bottom of your screen, then click the three-line icon at the top right corner.
2. Go to Settings and privacy > Privacy.
3. Tap Following list under Interactions.
4. Finally, select Only you under the Who can see your following list section.

Stop TikTok from Suggesting Your Account to Others

If you prefer to keep your TikTok account low-key, especially if it’s set to public, you can stop TikTok from suggesting your account to others. By default, TikTok might suggest your account to your contacts, Facebook friends, and people who click on or send you links. Even with a private account, these suggestions can still happen unless you change a few settings.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to your Profile, then tap the three-line icon at the top right corner.
2. Navigate to Settings and privacy > Privacy.
3. Tap Suggest your account to others under Discoverability.
4. You’ll see three options: Contacts, Facebook friends, and People who open or send links to you. Toggle off all of them to ensure your account is not suggested.

Disable Profile View History

We all have those moments when we secretly check out someone’s TikTok profile, but what many people don’t know is that TikTok tracks who’s been checking out profiles. If the Profile View History feature is turned on, the person whose profile you visited might be able to see that you’ve been lurking.

If you don’t want others to know you’ve viewed their profile or want to be an anonymous TikTok viewer, here’s how to keep things private:

1. Go to the Profile tab at the bottom of the screen and tap the three-line icon in the top right corner.
2. Tap Settings and privacy > Privacy, then select Profile views under Interactions.
3. Finally, toggle off the switch next to Profile view history.

By disabling this feature, you won’t be able to see who views your profile either, but it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind and make your TikTok account so private that your profile view history is hidden!