If you’re going for a scroll through tiktok, you may see suggested accounts or people you may know – for most people, it’s scarily accurate and it can lead you to wonder how tiktok is so good at figuring out who you might know.
In this article, I’ll be breaking down how tiktok knows who to suggest you, why certain people are being suggested to you, and what these terms actually mean.
These suggested accounts may be your next door neighbor or possibly even someone in another time zone. Regardless of who they are, Instragam has an algorithm that offers a lot of unique, and sometimes some methods that infringe on your privacy, ways to fnd these accounts and recommend them to you.
From simply using the people you are already following to fnding those who graduated from the same highschool as you, a lot of accounts are included in the “People You Might Know is On TikTok” feature.
Tip: If you’ve just made an TikTok account that you don’t want people to know about, you may be worried that people will be notified that you’ve joined TikTok. Luckily, I’ve done an article on this so you know everything that happens.
Contacts – The first reason why TikTok would suggest someone to you as a suggest account is that they have you in their contacts or you have them in your contacts. Since you know them well enough to have them in your contacts, TikTok would think that you would want to follow them.
Facebook friends – If you sync your facebook friends, then TikTok would suggest them to you because they think you’re friends with this person – so why wouldn’t you want to follow them on TikTok? If you aren’t friends with them on Facebook and don’t want them to be suggested to you on TikTok, you can simply turn this off.
People with mutual connections – Mutual connections are another reason why TikTok would suggest someone to you. It’s simple. Your friends follow them, so why wouldn’t you. This is a person reason for them to think you know someone.
People who open or send link to you – Since this person is sending you tiktoks outside of the app, it’s a perfect reason for tiktok to think that you know them. You’re actively speaking to them outside the app so you definitely know them.
What Does People You May Know Mean on TikTok?
People you may know is very similar to suggested accounts. It’s simply people TikTok are suggesting to you that they think you might know. These accounts comprise of people who have either followed you, your friends follow, you’ve messaged before, you have in your contacts, or they have you in their contacts
TikTok Says From Your Contacts But I Don’t Know Them
You may be wondering why TikTok says from your contacts but you don’t know them. I experience this myself too – I see a bunch of accounts with weird profile pictures and I’m thinking who the hell could this be because the name nor the picture has any correlation.
I’ve done my research as well as some logic and there are a few reasons why this could happen.
1. They’re Not Using the Same Name or Profile Picture
The biggest reasons why this could happen is that they’re not using the same name that you know them by or a profile picture that contains them. A lot of people don’t like to make social media accounts that are attached to their real identity.
They like to navigate social media without anyone knowing who they are – these are mainly people that like to stalk people or like to interact the videos on TikTok so why would they attach their identity, especially if they might be commenting things that aren’t of the status quo.
2. You Have Them In Your Contacts But You Don’t Know Them
Since you don’t know that you have them in your contacts, you won’t be able to recognize them in the suggested accounts section. Maybe you added them to your contacts years ago and now because you’ve forgotten that you have them added, when you see them in your suggested you don’t recognize them
3. Bug
Another big one that I don’t think is talked about enough is that there’s a bug that’s causing TikTok to show people that they’re saying you have in your contacts but you don’t.
I think that sometimes it might keep people in the suggested accounts section that you used to have and even if you deleted them, they’ll still show them.
Another thing that could happen is that it’s suggesting people they think that you might know then just attaching the you have them in your contacts label to their account even though you don’t have them in your contacts.
This then leads you to think that they’re in your contacts and you end up scrolling through your contacts for ages wondering why you don’t have this person but the truth is that you never had them.
Tiktok No More Suggested Accounts
If you’re not seeing suggested accounts anymore on TikTok, it could be that you’ve followed everyone that they’ve been suggesting, therefore, they don’t have anymore accounts to suggest.
Even then, they’re not going to keep suggest account even if you follow everyone they suggested, there comes a time where they’re not going to force people down your throat.
TikTok people only suggest people that they know you’ll have an affinity with. In most cases, they don’t force people down your throat that they don’t think you have a chance of following. They’ll only do this to people that they think you’d actually follow.
Another reason why this would happen is because of a bug. Like always, bugs like to manifest themselves in random situations, and this might be one of them. Sometimes there can be technical errors that occur randomly and this can cause no one to show up in the suggested accounts sections.
To get rid of the bug, the best thing you can do is log out and log back into your TikTok account. This will refresh your account and get rid of system glitches in there that have manifested. After this go to your TikTok following and click on the Suggested tab, you’ll see that you more people should be in the suggested section.
Another thing that you can do is simply wait. If you decide to wait, let’s say a week, then more suggested accounts should appear in the suggested accounts section. Before then, if you do start seeing people come up in your suggested, try not to follow them so that they the suggested accounts list can rack up
How to Turn Off Suggested Accounts TikTok
- In the TikTok app, tap Profile at the bottom.
- Tap the Menu button at the top.
- Tap Settings and privacy.
- Tap Privacy, then tap Suggest your account to others.
- Untoggle every box you see. This will consist of Contacs, facebook friends, people with connections, people who open or send links to you.