How to Turn on Comments on TikTok – A Quick Guide

Just like with any social media platform, TikTok comments can be a double-edged sword. Here’s a quick guide on how to turn on comments on TikTok and manage comments settings to make them work for you and your brand and not against you.

• Why even care about TikTok comments?
• How to turn on comments on TikTok
• How to turn on comments on TikTok before you post a video
• How to turn on comments on TikTok after posting
• How to turn off comments on TikTok
• How to turn off comments for TikTok Live
• Why can’t you turn on comments on TikTok?
• How to make managing your TikTok comment section a lot easier
• Turning on TikTok comments – FAQs

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Why even care about TikTok comments?

If you use TikTok daily, you probably know that its algorithm deciding what content to show to a scrolling user is pretty sophisticated. It takes into account things like what you watch and how long you watch it, the accounts you follow, the content you create, and so on. And a big chunk of that selection comes from the action of commenting. 

And when you think about it, it makes total sense to add more importance to comments. Because next to actions like stitching and dueting, comments on your TikTok videos are one of the ultimate forms of engagement. 

Someone takes the time to watch the video (though commenters don’t always watch/read stuff before commenting, and that’s another story), tap on comments, and sometimes scroll through the entire comment section to maybe weigh in on the conversation already happening there.

All in all, they intentionally devote their time (you know, as opposed to the so-called doom-scrolling) to engage with your video. And that’s something TikTok will reward. And business reasons aside, it’s how communities get built on social media platforms, with TikTok being no different.

(Although some people might have a different idea of how TikTok works ;))

Anyway, what this all means is that as a brand or a creator on TikTok, you should really pay attention to your comment section:

• Getting those comments in
• And then managing them and replying to them to keep the conversation going (and feed the hungry algorithm)
• And also making sure that the conversations are not going in the wrong direction, and that you stay on top of them.

Which all gets slightly more difficult the more reach and followers you get and the more TikTok accounts you manage (for example, if you’re a marketing agency.)

(But I guess there’s always a price for success, right? ;))

So let’s take a look at how to turn on comments on TikTok, how to turn them off (and when), and how to make the whole TikTok comment thing more manageable and enjoyable (as opposed to another stressful thing on the social media manager’s agenda.)

How to turn on comments on TikTok

(Let me grab my phone to show you.)

So, in general, there are a couple of ways to turn on comments on TikTok. The app will allow you to have comments turned on/off for all your TikToks and also for individual videos. And you can also turn them on before and after posting your TikToks, so we’ll take a look at both scenarios in a second.

To manage the comments for your entire account, do the following:

Open your TikTok app and tap the menu in the top right corner. Go to Settings and privacy > Privacy > Comments. That’s where you can decide who (and if anyone) can comment on your videos globally for your entire account.

You can select to allow commenting for:

• Everyone (including people who don’t follow you)
• Only your TikTok users that follow you back
• No one (which basically equals having your comments turned off)

In the same menu, you can also set up filters for your TikTok comments. This means that any comments will have to be approved by you before they appear under your TikToks for everyone to see.  

You can filter all comments, specific keywords, or comment types (e.g., filter spam and offensive comments.) And in doing that, TikTok gives you quite a bit of flexibility, so you can decide the level of control you want to retain over what gets posted/filtered out.

How to turn on comments on TikTok before you post a video

TikTok also allows you to turn on comments for individual videos. There’s basically one thing you need to remember about – and that’s turning the “Allow comments” toggle right before you tap on “Post” to share your latest TikTok with your audience.

Of course, when the comments are on, the group you specified in your Privacy settings will be able to comment (so, for example, just the followers who follow you back, if that’s your setting.)

And conversely, switching it off will mean people won’t be able to comment on that particular TikTok video at all.

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How to turn on comments on TikTok after posting

You can also turn on comments for an existing TikTok after you’ve already posted it.  In newer versions of the app there’s also a bulk option: go to Settings and privacy → Privacy → Activity Center → Manage Comments – you’ll see all videos with comments turned off and can re-allow them in a couple of taps (if you don’t see it, update your app).

To do that, tap the three dots in the right-hand side menu on your video, and scroll horizontally all the way until you see the Privacy settings. 

Then switch the Allow comments toggle to “on.” And you’re done.

It works the same way when you want to turn comments off on a video after you’ve posted it (because maybe the discussion there got a little bit out of control, which sometimes happens.)

How to turn off comments on TikTok

And the flip side – if the comment section is doing more harm than good, here’s how to turn off comments on TikTok:

For a single video: open the video, tap the three dots, choose Privacy settings, and toggle off Allow comments. You can flip it back on the same way anytime.

For all future videos: go to Settings and privacy → Privacy → Comments and set Allow comments from to Friends or No one.

Before you go nuclear, though: you can filter instead of silencing. In the same Comments settings, TikTok lets you filter spam, offensive comments, and custom keywords – and NapoleonCat’s Auto-moderation takes that further with rules that hide unwanted comments automatically, including during spikes.

How to turn off comments for TikTok Live

You can also manage your comment settings for your TikTok Lives. When you host a TikTok Live, you can choose to hide comments, limit them, or filter them the same way you would for your regular TikTok content. Works both ways, by the way – if comments are off during your LIVE, tap the settings icon in the LIVE screen and toggle them back on, and viewers will see the comment feed again instantly.

During your TikTok Lives, you can also:

• Mute (a.k.a. disable comments for a specified amount of time)
• Block comments with selected keywords or phrases from being posted
• And send an automated message in the Live chat to let your viewers know that you’re filtering comments.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Before or during your TikTok video, go to Settings > Comments.
2. Then choose your fighter, I mean, preference: 

• Allow comments to turn them on or off during your Live
• Filter comments to filter offensive or community-flagged comments.
• Mute comments. Select mute duration – it can even be for the entire duration of your TikTok Live.
• Block keywords – define words and phrases in the comments that will block the comment from being posted and seen by everyone. 

Oh, and don’t forget that the setting you select will stay on for your next Live video (until you change it.)

Why can’t you turn on comments on TikTok?

If you’re wondering why can’t I turn on comments on TikTok when the toggle seems to do nothing – it’s usually one of these:

• Age settings. Accounts registered as under 16 can’t open comments to Everyone at all, and some settings stay locked until 18. TikTok won’t change your birthday without ID proof, so there’s no workaround on an existing account.
• The video is under review. Freshly posted or flagged videos can have engagement limited until TikTok clears them.
• Regional teen-safety defaults. Some markets ship with stricter comment defaults that override your choices.
• A plain old glitch. Update the app, log out and back in – it fixes this more often than it should.

How to make managing your TikTok comment section a lot easier

To avoid TikTok comment overwhelm, get a social media tool that has TikTok comment managing capabilities – like NapoleonCat does. In the Social Inbox, you can see and moderate all your TikTok comments (organic and ads) alongside interactions from your other social media channels, e.g., Instagram and Facebook. And if replying is the bottleneck, auto-commenting AI for TikTok handles the routine answers, while a cross-platform social media moderation tool keeps the same rules running on every channel you manage.

The Inbox will let you and your team do things like:

• Reply to TikTok comments, like, and delete them
• Flag them internally for your team 
• Archive them when they’re sorted/replied to
• Assign them to a team member like a regular customer service ticket
• Add internal notes for your team
• Send it for external consultation (e.g., to the client or the product team)
• Automatically translate the comment and your response.

Take a look at this video to see how it works in practice:

We highly recommend you test NapoleonCat completely for free – no credit card required 😉

TikTok management tool for teams

Schedule TikToks, manage comments and auto-hide spam (organic posts and ads), and track performance – all in one tool.

Try NapoleonCat for free

14-day trial period. No credit card required.

Turning on TikTok comments – FAQs

How do you turn on comments on TikTok LIVE?

When setting up your LIVE, tap the settings icon and make sure comments are allowed. Already live? Tap the three dots, open settings, and toggle comments back on – the feed reappears for viewers right away.

How do you turn comments back on for several videos at once?

In newer app versions: Settings and privacy → Privacy → Activity Center → Manage Comments. You’ll get a list of every video with comments turned off and can re-allow them one by one, without opening each video.

Why won’t TikTok let me allow comments from everyone?

Almost always age: under-16 accounts can’t set comments to Everyone, and teen accounts in some regions have locked, stricter defaults. If that’s not it, update the app and check whether your account is set to private – private accounts only get comments from followers.