How Can You Block a Sound on Tiktok?

Did you know that there is an option to hide videos with a given sound on Tiktok? Looking at it, it appears that it should be very easy to block a sound on Tiktok. But as it turns out, while the steps to use this option are quite simple, it doesn't work reliably. In this article, you will see how to find the option to block a given sound. And the possible reasons why it will not work as intended, at least not for everyone immediately.
Tiktok Challenges, Hashtag Trends, and their Sounds / Songs
On Tiktok, an important component of any video is its background music, song or sound. Typically, for viral trends on Tiktok called Tiktok Challenges, there is a particular song or set of songs that are used. This background music clip is very much part of the identity of any video. When a user sees a funny or interesting video, they can see what music clip is used it in. And they can browse all other videos that use this same music clip.
Now, this is great when you like a song or sound. But there are times when you find that sound annoying. Or perhaps you don't like the overall trend or style of videos that are made with that sound. So, in such negative scenarios where you wish to avoid seeing Tiktok content with a particular sound, you can block the sound. This works by manually giving feedback to Tiktok algorithm that you no longer wish to see videos with a particular sound. Keep reading to see the exact steps to take to block a sound on Tiktok.
How to Block a Sound or Song on Tiktok?
In other words, how to stop seeing videos with a specific sound or song on Tiktok? This is very easy to do.
If you ask us, if can you block a sound on TikTok then definitely YES but you have to follow the steps:
1) Step 1: Browse till you find a video with the annoying sound
Open Tiktok app. Do you have any particular sound or trending hashtag in mind, that you find annoying or wish to avoid for any reason? If you know the name of the song, or the hashtag used for that Tiktok challenge, you can enter this name or hashtag in the Tiktok search bar.
In any case, you somehow need to get to any video that has the annoying sound you wish to avoid. Perhaps you remember a friend posting a video with that sound/song? Or you may have the viral video of some influencer with that specific sound? Just browse or search around, till you find it.
Normally, even if you aren't looking for it, you might accidentally come across content with annoying song, music or sound. Once you have found something like that, proceed to Step 2.
2) Step 2: Tap & Hold on that Video
Now when you are on such a video, simply tap and hold on the video (or, in other words, long press).
This will open the Options Menu. It has some options like:
- Save video
- Add to Favorite
- Report
- Not interested ... More >
- Send to friends
3) Step 3: Tap on "More" to the right of "Not Interested"
When you tap on the "More >" link located on the right side of the "Not interested" option, it opens another screen.
It has two options:
- Hide videos from this user
- Hide videos with this sound
As you can guess from these two options, one of them is likely to be more useful to block a sound on Tiktok.
4) Step 4: Tap on "Hide videos with this sound"
You are trying to stop seeing videos that have the same sound as in this video. Hence, you choose to tap on the option "Hide videos with this sound".
If you don't like the content from a given user, you can instead choose "Hide videos from this user". In this case, to avoid seeing videos from a particular person, you can also block that person's profile.
But for the sake of this article, we are focusing on blocking videos with a particular sound. Hence we select the "Hide videos with this sound" option.
5) Step 5: Tiktok gives you a confirmation
After you tap on "Hide videos with this sound" option, the video you were on stops playing. Instead, another randomly selected video starts playing. And on top, Tiktok gives you a confirmation "We'll show fewer posts like this from now on".
Now, it would have been perfect if Tiktok gave you a stronger and clearer confirmation. Something like "We'll never show you posts with this sound again". Because that's exactly what you want.
6) Step 6: You might have to repeat the above steps again, many times
As per Tiktok's policies and algorithms, they want to optimize the content in your feed in a softer manner. As a result, no one can 100% guarantee that you will never see another video with that annoying sound. In fact, you might see another one with that sound after some time. And then again and again. Which makes some to believe that this "Not interested" and "hide videos with this sound" option is broken. Or perhaps, Tiktok team has still not implemented the function behind it. Maybe it is just a mockup or a demo still? Perhaps in the future Tiktok updates, we will get a working feature for blocking videos with a particular sound?
Final Words
When we look at users' feedback on social media about how to block a sound on Tiktok, like the discussions on Reddit and Youtube, we see mixed reactions. Some say that the block sound feature works for them well. Others say that their annoyance has only multiplied, because they keep trying to do the "Not Interested (More) > Hide videos with this sound" steps. But they continue seeing posts with that sound.
This leads us to believe that Tiktok team may be testing this feature and rolling it out gradually. Maybe they want to make sure that it doesn't hurt user engagement. Tiktok doesn't want that the time spent by users, and the views and likes on videos, to decrease because of some new feature. So, they are cautious in introducing functionality that blocks or restricts certain subsets of their content. They monitor the effect carefully and then make the decision to make the feature universal if everything works fine as per their goals and vision.
