TikTok One-liner

Project Background: The First Bullet Comment System for a Global Platform

As a significant innovation for TikTok's global product, we integrated bullet comments into the top space of videos, optimizing screen space utilization while significantly enhancing global user engagement and watch time through real-time social interaction.

As the first bullet comment system for a global video platform, this project needed to accommodate cultural habits and interaction preferences of users from different regions, creating a new video experience for global users while maintaining TikTok's clean interface.

Scene Selection: Landscape Videos and Idle Space Utilization

To reduce the user learning curve, bullet comments were limited to landscape videos (experiments validated this decision). When landscape videos play in the vertical feed, the black empty area at the top becomes the ideal display space for bullet comments, avoiding content obstruction while requiring no additional screen space.

To balance user understanding of this new feature with minimizing disruption to the page content. Display the full name before the user taps the "Add one-liner" button below the landscape video; after the user taps it, display only the icon.

For full-screen playback, we added semi-transparent black outlines to improve readability (invisible in vertical mode as they match the background color).

Respecting User Habits

To prevent user discomfort with the new feature, we provided a "Hide One-Liner" quick close option in the long-press panel and when inputting bullet comments, respecting user preferences.

Rapid Iteration

Initial data: Bullet comments significantly improved interaction rates and playback duration, but full-screen playback duration slightly decreased.

Quick iteration: By removing the black outlines from bullet comments (moderately reducing readability), we reduced video obstruction and this approach stabilized the metrics.

User Flow

The primary user flow was designed as follows:

Results and Impact

After the feature's limited release, key metrics (retention time, interaction rate) continuously improved, validating the feasibility of bullet comments in a global context and providing an important paradigm for subsequent interactive feature designs. The feature has now been fully launched globally.