In a move reminiscent of Facebook’s early days, TikTok is launching a new feature that allows college students to find and connect with others on their campus. The feature, called Campus Verification, lets users add their college campus to their TikTok profile and browse a list of students at their school.
To access the feature, users need to navigate to their profile and tap the “Add school” button. From there, they need to enter their school name and then select their graduation year.
To verify that they actually go to the school they entered, they need to provide their academic email address. Once complete, their college name and graduation year will be displayed on their profile.
Users can then browse their school’s page, filter by graduation year, and view all of the users who have added the school to their profile. They can also sort the users list to show the most-followed users first.
The feature is available across more than 6,000 universities through TikTok’s partnership with UNiDAYS, a student verification platform that confirms student status.
TikTok says the idea behind the feature is to turn its platform into a hub for real-world connections and belonging on campus, which is essentially what Facebook’s original mission was when it launched in 2004 as a way for Harvard students to connect with one another.
TikTok’s new feature could be a welcome addition for college students looking to connect with others on campus. However, it also raises concerns about digital privacy, as it could make it easier for users to track others online. Of course, the feature is optional, so those who prefer to keep their TikTok presence separate from their student life can choose to simply not add their school to their profile.
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It’s worth noting that the launch comes as Instagram was spotted testing a similar feature last year that would allow users to display their school info and graduation year on their profile and connect with other students. It’s unknown if the feature was scrapped or if the Meta-owned platform still plans to roll it out.
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