TikTok users regularly complain of wasting hours on the platform, especially at night. To address these concerns, the company is testing new sleep reminders that set alerts when it’s time to go to bed and include options to mute notifications during the recommended seven hours of sleep. confirmed to TechCrunch on Friday that the new sleep reminder is being tested with select users around the world.
A screenshot shared by product intelligence company Watchful.ai shows the new feature will appear under the app’s “Screen Time” settings. Options are displayed. The app says sleep reminders will help you “know if you’ve reached your sleep time on TikTok so you can go to bed when you want to.” You will be notified to close the app. TikTok also mutes push notifications after 7 hours of sleep to avoid distractions.
Image credit: Watchful.ai
A company spokesperson said TikTok is continually working on new ways to support user well-being and this new tool builds on its current digital wellbeing capabilities. The app first released screen time management tools in February 2020 and has since introduced additional features aimed at giving users more control over their use of the app.
Last June, the company released an in-app tool to help users control how much time they spend on TikTok at any one time by allowing them to schedule regular screen time breaks. A 10-, 20-, or 30-minute break reminder is suggested, but users can set custom time reminders if they want to join a longer or shorter session before the notification appears. also limits nightly notifications for teen accounts. Users aged 13-15 will no longer receive push notifications from 9pm, users aged 16-17 will have push notifications disabled from 10pm
Thanks to TikTok’s unparalleled ability to distract and engage users through its advanced recommendation technology, its addictiveness has been the subject of many psychological studies. As a result, it should come as no surprise that TikTok is testing additional tools designed to give users greater control over her TikTok usage. As with other testing features, it’s unclear when or if TikTok has plans to roll out the sleep reminder feature more broadly.
