Whenever one comes across TikTok, one has a moral imperative to share it. After all, if a teen uploads a Good Dance and it doesn’t get any likes, did it really happen? But recently, TikTok users on iPhone have noticed something’s changed about the way iMessage is showing the videos.
Usually, a link to a TikTok video sent via Apple’s messaging platform would be shown with a full preview.
But on Friday, TikTok users noticed that the videos shared in iMessage looked strange and, well, kind of like a dodgy link.
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TikTok user @lifeofadoctor was one of the first to spot the change, and posted a TikTok about it.
“About a month ago, if you shared a TikTok post through iMessage, you would get a preview like this. Then about a week ago, you lost a preview but it still says TikTok. Now the only thing you see when you share a TikTok video is this HTML text,” he said.
@lifeofadoctoriMessage slowly censoring TikTok? ##viral♬ original sound – lifeofadoctor
The video was cross-posted to Twitter by another user, and soon dozens of people were chiming in saying they were experiencing a similar issue.
I’m seeing the smaller embed, not the HTML text. pic.twitter.com/JdnhxTyICz
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) August 14, 2020
Some users were confused by the change, like journalist Osman Faruqi.
I think my mum is trying to send me TikTok’s? pic.twitter.com/6iX1PkgzXD
— Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) August 14, 2020
It is not clear whether this change is a result of action by Apple or TikTok. But the change comes on the same day that Apple kicked off a fight with another big tech company, Epic Games, who is suing the company for removing its game Fortnite from the App Store over a dispute about in-app payments.
It also comes one day after the latest iOS 13.6.1 update was released. However, Osman Faruqi told Gizmodo Australia he’s still using iOS 13.6 and is encountering the issue.
Update August 15, 2020: TikTok support has confirmed this issue was a bug that has now been resolved.
“We identified a technical issue where TikTok videos shared via iMessage temporarily weren’t correctly displaying as TikTok video previews for some users. Our team has since resolved the issue,” TikTok said.
Gizmodo Australia has tested this and can confirm it’s now working.
We identified a technical issue where TikTok videos shared via iMessage temporarily weren’t correctly displaying as TikTok video previews for some users. Our team has since resolved the issue.
— TikTokSupport (@TikTokSupport) August 14, 2020
This post was originally published on August 14 at 5:17pm.