TikTok users need to check out this new security feature

By Cristina Alexander Published March 17, 2025

Most people open TikTok first thing in the morning to check out the latest trending videos and stats on videos they made themselves. You may also want to check your account security settings, as TikTok has introduced a new security feature called Security Checkup.

The social media company introduced the new security tool in a press release on Monday, encouraging users to better keep their accounts safe from hackers. Once you access Security Checkup by tapping Settings and privacy and clicking Security and permissions from your TikTok profile, you’ll see a checklist of things to do to secure your account.

Among those is linking both your email address and your phone number to make sure you have a backup login method in the event you lose access to your account, enabling two-step verification when you log in from a different device, removing devices that you no longer use or don’t recognize, and enabling passkeys to log into your account in different ways other than a password, such as Face ID or a PIN code. TikTok already automatically scans for suspicious activity on your account. If it picks up something, it’ll be flagged in the Security and permissions hub for your review.

TikTok named Security Checkup after Google’s security feature, which has a similar layout but different settings, such as third-party connections and saved passwords.

The new security feature comes a week after TikTok launched a wind-down feature that cuts off teens’ late-night scrolling with calming music if they open the app after 10 p.m. It also comes amid uncertainty over TikTok’s future in the U.S., as President Trump extended the TikTok ban deadline by 75 days back in January to give ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, more time to sell the app to an American company. The new deadline for the ban is April 5.