Bytedance-owned social video platform TikTok is improving ways in which users can customize their For You feed, letting them increase emphasis on subjects of interest with Manage Topics and adding AI-powered Smart Keyword Filters to suppress content they don’t want to see. While the social platform has featured keyword filters for some time, the new filters are smart enough to catch a broader range of unwanted content. Users can now include up to 200 filtering keywords and let AI do the rest “to capture additional videos featuring similar words, synonyms and slang variations” that reduce unwanted content in the For You feed.

Previous filtration was limited to 100 words, writes TechCrunch. While AI currently populates the keywords, “the company says that users will soon be able to select or deselect specific keywords they want to include.”

TechCrunch explains that the Smart Keyword Filters tool “will show you which additional keywords are being filtered in addition to your original one. For example, if you choose to filter out ‘remodeling,’ TikTok will also filter out ‘renovation’” and ‘renovations.’”

The Smart Filters “could be good for weeding out potentially harmful trends, like ‘SkinnyTok,’ which TikTok banned from its own search results this week” following EU pressure, Social Media Today reports.

“With Manage Topics, you can customize how often content related to over 10 popular topics is recommended in your feed — from Creative Arts, Travel, Nature and Sports,” TikTok explains in a newsroom post. “This makes it even easier for communities who love topics like animal history, science and more, to discover [relevant] creators.”

Manage Topics joins the other For You controls as well as liking and favoriting videos and search history to inform the algorithm as to user tastes and appropriate recommendations.

TikTok launched Manage Topics on a limited basis last August “and has been testing it ever since, so you may have already noticed it in your content options,” notes Social Media Today.

Along with those announcements, TikTok said it is launching an education guide to help users implement customizations and better understand For You feeds.

Simultaneously, TikTok issued a related news post discussing the new For You features in the context of mental health initiatives, mentioning $375,000 in donations to leading mental health organizations across Australia and New Zealand.

Related:
TikTok for Artists: New Analytics Platform Gets Official Launch, ETCentric, 6/5/25
TikTok Ripe with Mental Health Misinformation, New Study Reports, Engadget, 6/3/25