There’s no shortage of video editing tools built into TikTok to help grow your audience and reach. The latest editing feature to join the mix, Stitch, is already proving popular among TikTok users worldwide. Not only is using Stitch on TikTok easy, but it can also make for seriously engaging original content.
In this brief introductory guide, we’ll be taking a look at how Stitch works and its purpose. Once you’ve got to grips with the basics, you’ll see just how straightforward this new editing feature is.
What is Stitch on TikTok?
TikTok’s new and exciting feature called Stitch is essentially a very simple splicing tool. Its purpose is to allow creators to stitch bits and pieces from other videos into their own original content. The feature is deactivated by default, so all users have the option of choosing whether or not they will allow other users to use extracts from their videos in their content.
It’s similar to the Duet feature in many ways – you have to authorize others to take extracts from your videos to use in their clips. If you do, you’ll benefit from a link back to your original video and credit in the new clip if any of your content is used.
The difference with Stitch is that whereas Duet allows the user to create reaction videos in a split-screen format, the clips are integrated together into one video. As TikTok explained upon announcing the new feature: Stitch is a way to reinterpret and add to another user’s content, building on their stories, tutorials, recipes, math lessons, and more.
True to its name, users are able to stitch together various extracts from other people’s videos combined with their own content in order to produce original videos with total creative freedom. The feature is still being refined by TikTok but is already being embraced by millions of creators worldwide.
How to Turn On and Turn Off TikTok Stitch?
TikTok has (understandably) disabled Stitching by default, leaving it up to the individual user whether or not they participate. If you don’t want other people using your content in their videos, you don’t have to do anything – it’s disabled as a standard.
But if you want your content to be used elsewhere and earn the original creator credits accordingly, you’ll need to activate the feature manually. Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Log into your account and head to the “Settings and Privacy” section
Step 2: Select “Privacy” then scroll down to “Who Can Stitch Your Videos”
Step 3: You can then choose one of three options – Everyone, Friends, or No one.
It’s worth noting that even if you select “Everyone,” you still get to decide which individual videos can be Stitched by other users. Prior to posting a video on TikTok, you’ll be prompted to decide whether or not it can be Stitched. Hence, you can use the feature to Stitch other people’s content without having to make your own content available.
How to Stitch on TikTok?
TikTok has made the process of creating a Stitched video for a walk in the park. Like the platform’s other editing tools, the feature guides you through the process step by step. Stitch enables you to stitch up to 5 seconds of another video into your own video content.
There are no restrictions on where or how you use this Stitched content, only that it must not be longer than 5 seconds. To use the feature, simply find the video you want to Stitch and tap the “Share Icon.” From here, you’ll see all the options available for sharing the clip, including SMS, WhatsApp, Duet, and Stitch.
If the Duet and Stitch buttons are greyed out, the creator has disallowed their use. If they’re black, you can select the “Stitch” option to get started. You’ll then the prompted to select up to five seconds from the video, which you’ll subsequently embed into your own content.
You can place this extract of up to 5 seconds anywhere in your video, with the option of adding all the usual effects, lenses, and filters after. Follow the on-screen instructions to position the extract in your video, and you’re good to go.
What’s the Difference Between TikTok React, Duet and Stitch?
Stitch differs slightly from TikTok’s React and Duet features, though it follows similar lines in that it enables you to share and repost other creators’ content. Here’s a basic overview of how the three tools work:
1. React
TikTok closed the doors on React some time ago – a feature designed specifically to capitalize on the popularity of reaction videos. React worked by superimposing a small window of the selected video on your own video in order to showcase your reaction to the content in question.
It was a popular and fairly effective tool for a while but became of little to no real value when Duet landed.
2. Duet
The Duet feature took React a step further, adding a kind of split-screen functionality to TikTok. The feature enables users to play someone else’s content on one side of the screen, with their own original content on the other.
Hence the name Duet – you can literally duet with someone else, side by side. As it’s also the perfect format for reaction videos, it took the torch from React, which was subsequently shut down.
3. TikTok Stitch
The Stitch works in a different way to both of the above tools, in that the third-party content you include in your clips is not played simultaneously. It’s instead played on its own wherever you embed it, up to a maximum of 5 seconds in length.
What’s particularly great about Stitch is how easy it makes it to credit the original author. Engaging original content for you – priceless credit and acclaim for the original publisher.
Conclusion
Creativity holds the key to getting the most out of TikTok’s editing tools. With Stitch, there’s limitless scope for doing amazing things with your original content. To date, reaction videos, meme content, and fact check clips have been the most popular applications for Stitch.
It’s also been hugely popular for featuring clips of challenges, followed by the creator attempting the same challenge themselves. In all instances, Stitch has huge potential for collaborative content and for leveraging the value of other people’s content.
Not to mention earning original creator credits and invaluable links to your own Stitched content. Trial and error hold the key to making things work with Stitch, which again is still largely under development. But from what we’ve seen so far, we expect nothing but great things for TikTok’s new editing tool going forwards.
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