With around 800 million active users, there’s no doubt TikTok is an extremely popular platform. It’s extremely intuitive and offers endless sources of entertainment. You can easily waste hours just scrolling through videos.

It just has one tiny flaw – it has a region-targeting algorithm. Unfortunately, that means you’re very likely to only see videos from your country. For some of you, that might not be an issue. But for others, that might be upsetting if your favorite TikTok content creators are from other countries.

So in this article, we’ll show you how to see videos from other regions. If you’re in a hurry and would like to skip to the easiest solution, just see more here.

How Does TikTok Recommend Content?

TikTok used to be more secretive of its algorithm. But it recently made that information public to make it easier for people to trust its app. According to the post, it recommends videos based on:

  • Your region, obviously – especially if you’re a new user. From a user experience POV, it makes sense that TikTok would recommend content based on your geographical location.
  • Your language since it wouldn’t really make sense for TikTok to recommend videos that you can’t understand. Of course, the app has no idea you know multiple languages if you don’t tell it.
  • And finally, your preferences. TikTok will analyze what kinds of videos you like and dislike over time, and try to recommend content based on your activity.

Besides that, there’s a chance TikTok’s algorithm also takes device information and video data (like captions and hashtags) into account.

How to See Videos from Other Regions

TikTok is pretty good at what it does, but what if you live in Italy or India, and joined TikTok to see content from influencers from the US or the UK?

In that scenario, you should try the following to get around TikTok’s geo-based algorithm:

1. Change Your Language

Luckily, you aren’t restricted to using just one language. You can set as many as you want. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open TikTok and pick Me in the lower right-hand corner.
  2. Look for the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, and tap them.
  3. Under the Account section, pick Content Preferences.
  4. Add the languages of the regions you want to see content from.

2. Follow People from Those Regions

Since TikTok also recommends content based on how you interact with videos, you could persuade it to show videos from other countries by following content creators from those regions.

So use the magnifying glass (called Discover) in the lower left-hand side to find popular TikTok-ers. If you don’t know enough, just google stuff like “best TikTok creators from [country].” You should find plenty of useful articles.

Besides that, you can also further influence the algorithm by following people who are following the content creators you like. To do that, tap Followers on an influencer’s profile, scroll through the list, and follow whoever you want.

To finish, make sure you like and comment on the videos you watch. TikTok is more likely to catch on that that’s what you’re interested in.

3. Use a VPN

Sometimes, TikTok recommends videos based on your IP address. That’s where a VPN comes in handy. It’s an online service that hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic.

By “hiding your IP address,” here’s what we mean:

  • You use a VPN app to connect to a VPN server.
  • The VPN server will intercept your connection requests to TikTok, and forward them for you.
  • TikTok will see your requests coming from the VPN server. So, the app will only see the server’s IP address, not your device’s address.

Since your IP address reveals what country and city you are from, it’s obvious that masking it can help you get new video recommendations. All you need to do is use a VPN server in the same country your favorite TikTok influencers are from.

How to Get Around TikTok’s Geo-Restrictions to See Videos from Other Regions

Finding a good VPN for TikTok can be tough since there are hundreds of services on the market. So we’ll make it simple for you with a very helpful guide from ProPrivacy. See more here about the best VPNs for TikTok and how to use one with the app.

Other Good Reasons to Use a VPN for TikTok

Besides helping you see videos from other regions, a VPN can also improve your TikTok experience by:

  • Helping you unblock TikTok when your government decides to block it (like the Indian government just did).
  • Letting you bypass censorship from moderators (useful in places like Indonesia where TikTok censors “negative content”).
  • Letting you unblock TikTok at school where the administration might have told the IT staff to block the app with firewalls. Since a VPN hides your IP address, the network’s firewall restrictions no longer apply to you.
  • Preventing ISPs from spying on your TikTok usage, and sharing that data with advertisers. Or using that information to throttle your bandwidth when you binge TikTok too much (which is very easy to do).

Still Having Trouble Seeing New Content? You Might Need a Different SIM Card

If none of the tips we mentioned worked, we have some bad news – you’ll need to get a new SIM card. 

Why?

Because, in some cases, TikTok might use your SIM card’s region code to recommend content. So you’ll need a SIM card from the region you want to see content from.

Luckily, it’s not hard to get one. You can actually buy SIM cards from different countries on eBay.

This workaround is quite a hassle, but at least it works. If you have a dual-SIM phone, switching between cards will be very simple at least.

Which One Of Those Tips Worked Best for You?

Were you able to see new content just by tweaking your language settings, or did you have to use a VPN too?

Also, if you had to use other methods to outsmart TikTok’s geo-based algorithm, please tell us about them.

Author

Sumit is a Tech and Gadget freak and loves writing about Android and iOS, his favourite past time is playing video games.

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