How to Go Live & Stream on TikTok

Brad Read more September 6, 2021

TikTok is full of awesome pre-recorded musical parodies. You can scroll through the “For You” page for hours, watching your favorite recorded videos from some of the best creators on TikTok. You might even create some of those videos yourself. But what about going live so that your followers can see you in real-time? After all, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are all social media platforms that allow you to “Go Live,” so what about TikTok?

TikTok, just like the others, allows you to go live for everyone to see in real-time. If you’re wondering how you can start your live stream on TikTok, follow along below, and we’ll show you how step-by-step. Let’s get started.

How to Go Live and Stream on Instagram

At first, it might be confusing on how to start a live stream on TikTok. The platform doesn’t necessarily make it very obvious as to how to go live. Here’s how to do it.

To go LIVE on TikTok, tap the “create” icon to access the LIVE screen.
Swipe to “LIVE” in the navigation, pick an image, and write a title for your stream.
Once you’re ready, press “Go LIVE” to start your stream.
Once you’re LIVE, you can tap the “vertical ellipsis” (three vertical dots) to change a variety of settings. You can flip the camera, add effects, filter comments, and even add moderators (up to 20).

Live Isn’t Available for Everyone

If you don’t see the option to go “Live” next to the record button, there’s a chance that you don’t have that capability yet. This scenario is because TikTok Live is only available to users with over 1,000 subscribers.

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How to Get the “Live” Button on Instagram

If you don’t already have the required 1,000+ followers, there are some ways to try and get the Live button to appear.

Email TokTok and ask them to release the “Live” feature on your account. Don’t try too hard to sell them on it (leads to rejection like a salesman pushing a product), but give them a valid reason to do it (received several request to go live, have a specified need to broadcast, etc.).
If “Step 1” fails, find a paid service or ask around on social media for people to subscribe to your TikTok channel, leading to more than 1,000 subs—it’s OK to sell here, LOL. That process opens the “Live” option to you.

If you’ve gone live before and no longer see the “Go Live” option, there’s also the possibility that you broke TikTok Community Guidelines, so TikTok could’ve taken away your ability to go Live.

As you can see, if you already have the Live button, it’s elementary to start a live stream on TikTok. However, it is more difficult to regain the “Go Live” option, whether it’s because you haven’t met the 1,000+ subscriber count or lost the feature due to failed TokTok Community Guidelines compliance.