TikTok is introducing new digital well-being features designed to improve the mental health of its users. These features include an affirmation journal and a background sound generator. The social network also announced it will award badges to users who actively manage their time on the platform.
The company is redesigning its screen time management page and adding several new tools. One tool is an affirmation journal, which offers over one hundred twenty positive prompts to help users set their daily intentions. Another is a sound generator that can play calming background noises such as rain or ocean waves. A breathing exercise module is also being added. The updated page will also host content from creators who discuss topics like limiting screen time, using parental controls, and customizing user feeds.
TikTok is launching new badges to reward people, especially teens, for using the platform within healthy limits. The company stated it reviewed academic research on digital well-being and discovered that overly restrictive tools can negatively impact teenagers.
Users can earn these badges by completing various missions. One mission involves avoiding the platform at night to complete the sleep hours objective. Using the new meditation tools is another way to earn a badge. TikTok will also reward users who set a daily screen time limit and then stay within that limit. Additional badges are available for viewing the weekly screen time report and for inviting other users to complete these missions.
During early testing, the company observed that more people visited the new well-being screen compared to the old screen time menu. The affirmation journal was noted as the most popular tool among the new features.
TikTok said it will display a link to these well-being tools when a person is using the app late at night or when they reach their preset daily screen time limit.
The company had previously launched new parental control tools in July. These tools gave guardians the ability to block specific accounts and receive notifications when teens upload a public video or a story. In the past month, several other technology companies have also introduced new safety tools with the goal of increasing teen safety.