TikTok has spent years perfecting the dark art of keeping you glued to your phone, but now it wants to help you put the phone down.
In a move that feels almost existential, the company announced on Wednesday the rollout of a new so-called ‘Time and Well‑Being’ centre designed to help people step away from TikTok – by using TikTok.
We’re talking guided meditation after 10 pm, a calming sound machine, breathing exercises, and digital “missions” that reward you for healthier habits.
It’s hard to ignore the tension of the very app that perfected the dopamine hit of endless browsing, promoting a kinder, gentler version of itself.
But Chinese-owned ByteDance’s viral app dubbed the move a way to stay ahead of regulators and promote user health.
With the UK’s Online Safety Act placing stronger obligations on tech firms to protect younger users, these features serve a practical purpose, too.
While some MPs have called the law too soft on “legal but harmful” content, TikTok is betting that its wellbeing tools could help it tick boxes and build goodwill.
TikTok saves you from itself
At the core of TikTok’s new wellbeing push is its new ‘Time and Well‑Being hub’, where users can journal affirmations (there are over 120 prompts), listen to soothing audio, and try guided breathing or meditation.
There are also “well‑being missions” which work like micro self-challenges, set to limit night scrolling, set daily screen-time boundaries, or meditate regularly.
For teenage users, TikTok will automatically suggest a meditation if they’re still scrolling past 10 pm, and then show a persistent prompt if they dismiss the first message.
According to the short-form video platform, nearly all teens in its internal test kept the feature turned on.
Elsewhere, TikTok is also addressing concerns about AI-generated content by giving users more control over what they see.
To do so, a new toggle in the app’s ‘manage topics’ section lets people decide how much AI-produced content they want in their feed, regardless of the topic category.
Strategy or genuine concern?
Why is TikTok doing this now?
On one hand, its new tools represent a response to growing regulatory scrutiny, especially on British soil, where the Online Safety Act demands more robust protection for minors.
By building wellbeing features directly into the app, TikTok can show it’s not just paying lip service to digital health.
But on the flip side, the move has scope to improve brand trust.
As society grows tired of the endless scroll and as other platforms like Meta and Pinterest roll out similar features, being proactive could be smart business. Encouraging users to moderate their usage risks reducing engagement, and the tension between attention and well-being will be tough to manage.
Still, for a platform whose business has long relied on attention, asking users to take a mindful pause is an interesting move. Whether it’s self-care, strategy, or a mix of the two, the platform is trying to make it easier for people to stop doomscrolling.