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How-to4 min read

How to Make TikTok Open to Following Instead of For You

TikTok has no setting that saves the Following tab as your default; the app resets to the algorithmic For You feed every time it's relaunched, so keeping Following as your landing screen requires a browser extension on TikTok's web version, since the native app offers no persistence option.

Open TikTok and you land on For You, always, no matter which tab you were on when you closed the app last. Following is one tap away and exists specifically to show only accounts you chose. It just doesn't remember that you picked it. This is why, and what changes that.

Following exists, it just doesn't stick

TikTok's Following tab is a real chronological feed: videos from accounts you follow, posted in order, no recommendation engine involved. It's sat next to For You since TikTok added the option years ago. The catch is persistence. Close the app, or sometimes just background it, and the next open lands you back on For You without asking.

There's no setting buried anywhere that changes this. It isn't a bug either. It's the default TikTok has kept through every redesign since Following existed.

Why For You is always the landing tab

For You is TikTok's core product, the feed engineered specifically around what keeps a given account watching. Following is the feed built around what you already chose. Making Following sticky would mean a meaningful share of sessions start on the feed TikTok didn't design to maximize. There's no incentive on TikTok's side to fix this.

What's left: the web version

TikTok's web version carries the same Following and For You tabs, the same videos, the same comments and likes. What it adds is a surface a Safari extension can act on before the page finishes loading, redirecting straight to Following instead of waiting for a tap.

On the web version, that means:

  • Following loads by default, every time, with no reset back to For You.
  • The For You and Explore surfaces stay out of the way entirely rather than needing to be dismissed each session.

Making the web version the one you land on

A guided iOS Shortcut, set to intercept the TikTok app icon and open the web version instead, closes the last gap: you tap the same icon out of habit, and Following is just what loads.

That's what DoomOff's TikTok toggle does specifically, redirects For You and Explore straight to Following, permanently, with a live preview of the result before you turn it on.

Frequently asked questions

How do I open TikTok to Following instead of For You?
Tap Following at the top of the screen after TikTok opens on For You. There's no way to make Following the default landing tab inside the native app. Every relaunch resets to For You.
Is there a setting to save my tab preference on TikTok?
No. Unlike some other platforms that have added tab-memory settings, TikTok's native app has never offered a way to persist which tab you land on. The reset to For You happens on every open.
Does Following show ads and recommended content like For You does?
No. Following shows only videos from accounts you follow, in the order they posted, without TikTok's recommendation engine mixing in suggested creators or content.