TikTok Partnership
Later
2022
Later has been chosen as one of TikTok's official partners, tasked with integrating 4 APIs within a two-month timeframe to enhance the pre-existing TikTok experience within the Later platform.
Role
UX Lead
Team
1 UI Designer 2 BE Developers TikTok API team
Services
End to End workflow Roadmap planning API suggestions
Impact
Usage
↑ 296% within 3 months
Number of scheduled posts
↑ 7K
TikTok announcement post engagement data
👀 49K 🤍 2225
Context
TikTok aimed to establish a network of official partners to drive its growth and popularity within the social media space. As part of this initiative, TikTok invested in developing exclusive APIs for these partners.
Given its leadership in visual social media marketing tools, Later was selected to be among the initial official partners. TikTok tasked us with integrating 4 APIs within two months. These APIs would enable users to connect TikTok to Later, auto-schedule posts, moderate comments, and view post analytics.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges was trying to align the workflows and features with Later’s UX standards while working with TikTok’s connection API. The integration introduced a lot of friction as we were pushing to speed up development. On top of that, we faced limited documentation since the APIs were still being developed, which made it tough to fully understand their capabilities and limitations.
Process
I worked closely with the TikTok API team, who were building their first partner APIs, to overcome challenges and ensure our integration provided both strong functionality and a seamless user experience.
To address the TikTok Connection API issue, I created two workflows to help the TikTok API team visualize the problem:
Following the API suggestion: This workflow adhered to the initial API design provided by TikTok
Ideal workflow: This was modeled after similar integrations with other platforms, such as Instagram, and represented our preferred UX
Workflows created based on TikTok’s initial API suggestions for connecting social accounts in Later
The initial API requires users to remember and select their account types, adding unnecessary friction to the process
Confirm that “Comments,” “Duet,” and “Stitch” features are included in the Scheduling API
Features
Later users can now plan, schedule, moderate comments, and review post performance for their TikTok accounts, all in one place alongside their other social accounts.
The popular visual calendar now supports TikTok, including API-backed features like Duet and Stitch, enabling users to keep their workflow consistent across platforms.
The Conversations feature centralizes all TikTok comments, making it easier to engage with followers. Users can view comments in three ways: Inbox view for the latest comments across all posts, Post view for comments on a specific post, and User view for comments from a single user.
Analytics offer valuable insights into post performance, with TikTok-specific metrics like Video Views highlighted for easy access and review.
Connecting and scheduling a TikTok post for the first time
Conversations: Inbox view
Conversations: Post view
Moderating comments using the Inbox and Post view
Analytics: Overview
Overview: Key profile metrics
Learnings
The power of prototypes:
Effective communication:
