TikTok Stories explained: How to make the most out of 24 hours

KaelenEntertainment2025-07-061650

Mastering emerging features is the best way to stay ahead of the curve with social media. By being an early adopter, you have an edge on your competition when the feature takes off. TikTok has been quietly rolling out and expanding TikTok Stories–short, segmented videos that serve as TikTok’s answer to popular story features on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

Since this feature hasn’t been heavily publicized, there’s untapped potential for marketers who take advantage of Stories. With short-form video being 2.5x more engaging for audiences, TikTok Stories are another tool in your arsenal.

A graph that reads "The most engaging types of in-feed social content." The most popular content type is short-form video, with 66%. The results are from the 2022 Sprout Social Index™.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about TikTok’s new Story feature.

What are TikTok Stories?

TikTok Stories are video segments lasting up to 15 seconds. They stay visible for 24 hours after posting, like other platform’s story features. Your story will be featured as an in-feed post with a story tag in the top left corner. Every story you publish within a 24-hour period will show up as a segment in that Story post, so if you need a little longer than 15 seconds to get your message across, you can break it up.