Social Media Strategy

TikTok Challenges: How to Find, Join or Start One

Updated 10 min read
Title card reading 'TikTok Challenges: How to Find, Join or Start One' with a vertical video frame and sound waves on an emerald gradient

Joining a TikTok challenge means posting your own version with its sound or hashtag, or answering the original video with a Duet or a Stitch. To start one, add an Add Yours prompt to your first entry: anyone on TikTok can answer it with their own post. Before you film, check the challenge against TikTok’s rules on dangerous challenges.

This guide sticks to the tools and rules TikTok documents, from spotting a challenge that’s live right now to launching your own. New to posting at all? Our complete guide to using TikTok starts from sign-up.

Table of Contents

What is a TikTok challenge?

A TikTok challenge is a trend: one video format that lots of people remake, linked by a shared hashtag or sound. It isn’t a setting you switch on. TikTok’s Help Center documents no challenge feature for ordinary accounts, and the tools it does document for inviting responses are Add Yours, Duet and Stitch. Checked against TikTok Help Center (searched)Not verified

So the useful questions are practical ones. Which sound or hashtag does the challenge run on? Does the original video allow Duets or Stitches? And would it be safe if someone copied it exactly?

Look in two places TikTok documents: Search in the app, and the Trends page of TikTok Creative Center, which shows trending hashtags. Search when you already know a challenge’s name or hashtag. Check Trends to see which hashtags are climbing, including the ones behind viral TikTok challenges.

Search in the app

Type the challenge’s name or hashtag into Search:

In the app:

  1. In the TikTok app, tap the Search button at the top.
  2. Enter what you're looking for in the search bar, then tap Search. Keep in mind that the most relevant search results appear in the Top tab.
  3. To refine your search, tap the More options … button at the top, then tap Filters to sort through your search results. Tap Apply after you select the filters.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Discover and search.

Check Creative Center’s Trends page on a computer

TikTok Creative Center is a free, public TikTok for Business site. You don’t need to log in, though TikTok recommends it to see all the data. Checked against TikTok Business Help Center: About Creative Center (last updated July 2026) TikTok’s steps for its Trends page:

On a computer:

  1. Log in to Creative Center.
  2. Click Trends.
  3. Search or filter by industry or time frame.
  4. Click See Analytics of any hashtag to learn more about its trendline, related videos, audience insights, regional popularity, and related hashtags.

Checked against TikTok Business Help Center: How to use Trends (last updated July 2026).

At the last check, the Trends page offered a Hashtag tab and a Video tab for a region you choose, with the United States as the default. It had no songs or music tab, and logged out it showed only the top three hashtags. What you see may differ by region or once you log in. Checked against TikTok Creative Center: Trends (page read 2026-10-07)

For more on the site, see our TikTok Creative Center guide. Once you know the challenge tag, the best hashtags for TikTok guide has tag sets by niche to pair with it, and the free TikTok hashtag generator drafts a set from a short description of your video.

How do you join a TikTok challenge?

Copy the part that makes it a challenge: use its sound, add its hashtag, answer its Add Yours prompt, or respond to the original video with a Duet or a Stitch. Each route below uses TikTok’s own steps, and each needs something of your own in it (see the originality note at the end of this section).

With the challenge’s sound

Add the sound from the camera screen. If a saved sound is missing from your Favorites when you upload a long video, TikTok says to set the length to 15s or 60s on the recording page to use it.

In the app:

  1. In the TikTok app, tap the Add post + button at the bottom.
  2. Tap Add sound at the top of the recording screen. From here, you can: tap a sound to preview it; select a sound from the For You, Favorites, or Recent tab; or tap the Search button to search for a sound, then tap the Continue ✓ button to confirm your choice.
  3. Tap the Favorites button to save the sound or the Edit button to adjust the sound clip.
  4. Tap anywhere on the video to add the sound to your post.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Sounds.

On a Business Account, Add sound shows only Commercial Sounds from TikTok’s Commercial Music Library, so a challenge song outside that library isn’t available to you. Checked against TikTok Business Help Center: How to use the Commercial Music Library

With the challenge’s hashtag

Record or upload your version, then add the challenge’s hashtag after you tap Next, where TikTok lists Add hashtags beside Add description:

In the app:

  1. In the TikTok app, tap the Add post + button at the bottom.
  2. Select a maximum length for your video. You can also tap Upload to add videos from your device, then continue to step 4.
  3. Tap the Record button, and when you're finished, tap the Continue ✓ button at the bottom.
  4. Tap Your Story to post to your Stories or Next to make additional edits, including: Add description, Add hashtags, Tag people, Add a location, Add link.
  5. Tap Post to publish your video, or tap Drafts to save it. Your drafts are visible only to you on your profile.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Making a post.

With an Add Yours prompt

If the challenge started with an Add Yours prompt, answer it from the prompt itself. TikTok notifies the prompt’s creator, your mutual friends and others who responded when you post. TikTok numbers its list 1, 2, 3, 5; the four steps below are its text in order, with nothing added to fill the gap.

In the app:

  1. Go to the post that contains an Add Yours prompt, then tap the button to view more details.
  2. Tap Add yours at the bottom to create a post.
  3. Upload a photo or video from your device, or tap the Camera button to take a photo or record a video.
  4. Tap Next to make additional edits, then tap Post.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: How to respond to an Add Yours post.

With a Duet

A Duet plays your video beside the original in a split screen. It only works on videos whose owner allows it: a creator needs a public account to let others Duet them, and not all videos have Duet turned on. Checked against TikTok Help Center: Duets

In the app:

  1. In the TikTok app, tap the Share button on the side of the video you'd like to Duet.
  2. Tap Duet at the bottom. You may need to swipe to find it.
  3. Add effects, filters, or use other camera tools.
  4. Tap the Record button to start and stop your recording, then tap the Continue ✓ button.
  5. Tap Your Story to post the Duet to your Story, or Next to make additional edits, including: Add description, Add hashtags, Tag people, Add a location, Add link, Manage privacy settings.
  6. Tap Post to publish your Duet or Drafts to save it. Your drafts are visible only to you on your profile.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Duets.

For more on Duets, see how to Duet on TikTok.

With a Stitch

A Stitch uses part of someone else’s video as part of yours, which suits challenges built as a question and an answer. If you can’t find Stitch on a video, it may not be turned on: TikTok notes that not all videos have it.

In the app:

  1. In the TikTok app, tap the Share button on the side of the video you'd like to Stitch.
  2. Tap Stitch and choose the part of the video you'd like to Stitch, then tap Next.
  3. Select a maximum length for your video.
  4. Tap the Record button to create your Stitch, then tap the Continue ✓ button.
  5. Tap Your Story to post to your Stories or Next to make additional edits, including: Add description, Add hashtags, Tag people, Add a location, Add link, Manage privacy settings.
  6. Tap Post to publish your Stitch or Drafts to save it. Your drafts are visible only to you on your profile.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Stitch.

Credit the video you built on

Your entry should add your own take. TikTok’s originality policy treats copied content, content largely repurposed without creative edits, low-value compilations and videos with someone else’s visible watermark as unoriginal, and unoriginal content may be removed from the For You feed. Checked against TikTok Creator Academy: Understanding TikTok's Originality Policy

When your version builds on one creator’s video, credit it. TikTok lets you credit up to 3 videos in a post from Mention, then Videos, on the Post screen, and the creator is notified. Crediting isn’t a copyright license, though. Checked against TikTok Help Center: Credit a video

How do you start your own TikTok challenge?

Start your own TikTok challenge by posting the first entry with an Add Yours prompt, which anyone on TikTok can answer with a post of their own. Get the wording right first: TikTok says you can’t delete an Add Yours button from a post once it’s published. You can find your Add Yours posts later in TikTok Studio under More tools, then Add Yours.

In the app:

  1. In the TikTok app, tap the Add post + button at the bottom.
  2. Upload a photo or video from your device, or tap the Camera button to take a photo or record a video.
  3. Tap Add Yours on the side of the editing screen. You can also tap Stickers, then tap the Add Yours sticker.
  4. Enter a prompt about any topic or select one of the suggested prompts based on trending topics, then tap Done.
  5. Tap Next to make additional edits, then tap Post.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Add Yours.

Use the same sound and hashtag on your own entry, so people who answer the prompt have something to copy. For the format itself, our list of TikTok video ideas has plenty you can turn into a prompt.

Running a challenge for a brand? TikTok’s Branded Hashtag Challenge help articles now redirect to “About Branded Mission”, an ad solution in which a brand invites eligible creators to make videos for a campaign and boosts the top-performing ones as ads. It’s an advertiser product, so an ordinary account can’t start one. Creators who take part must, among other conditions, be at least 18 (older in some countries), have at least 1,000 followers and not use a Business Account. Checked against TikTok Business Help Center: About Branded Mission (last updated July 2025) That 1,000-follower bar is also where the IAB’s nano influencer tier begins. For the other formats brands run with creators, from product seeding to affiliate deals, see influencer marketing campaigns.

Which TikTok challenges are not allowed?

Any challenge that shows or promotes dangerous activities. TikTok’s Community Guidelines say so directly and scale the response to the risk: content likely to be imitated and cause significant physical harm is removed, while content with moderate harm is kept out of the For You feed, restricted to people 18 and over, and may get a warning label. Checked against TikTok Community Guidelines: Mental and Behavioral Health (released 25 August 2026, effective 24 September 2026)

Those rules are in the current Guidelines, released on 25 August 2026 and in effect since 24 September 2026. Checked against TikTok Community Guidelines

Before you film any challenge, picture someone younger copying it exactly. If that could end in an injury, skip it. TikTok’s Safety Center gives a four-step process for weighing a challenge: stop, think, decide, act. Checked against TikTok Safety Center: Online challenges

What should you do if you see a dangerous challenge or a scary challenge warning?

Don’t copy it or pass it on, report it to TikTok, and check before you share any warning about it. TikTok’s Safety Center says it investigates reports of dangerous challenges, and that some viral warnings turn out to be hoaxes: “Sometimes, we don’t find evidence of a trend – even when warnings are being widely shared and reported on other platforms or in the media.” Checked against TikTok Safety Center: Online challenges

To report a post, including a dangerous challenge, choose the reason that fits; TikTok’s steps don’t name a specific challenge option. TikTok says it won’t tell the person you report who reported them.

In the app: From the TikTok app:

  1. Go to the post and tap the Share button, or press and hold the post.
  2. Tap Report and select a reason. If prompted, select a subtopic.
  3. Tap Submit.

On a computer: From a web browser:

  1. Go to the video and hover over the More options ... button at the top.
  2. Click Report and select a reason. If prompted, select a subtopic.
  3. Click Submit.

Checked against TikTok Help Center: Report a post.

One note on sound if you post through Outfeed AI rather than the TikTok app:

See what Outfeed AI can post to TikTok

TikTok challenge FAQ

What is the newest TikTok challenge?

There is no official answer. TikTok’s Help Center documents no challenge feature for ordinary accounts: challenges are trends people join with a hashtag or a sound. To see what is rising now, search in the TikTok app, or check the Trends page of TikTok Creative Center, which shows trending hashtags.

How do you start a TikTok challenge?

Post the first entry with an Add Yours prompt. In the editor, tap Add Yours on the side of the screen (or Stickers, then the Add Yours sticker), enter a prompt or pick a suggested one, tap Done, then post. Anyone on TikTok can respond with their own post. TikTok says you can’t delete an Add Yours button from a post after it’s published.

What TikTok challenges are dangerous?

Any challenge that shows or promotes dangerous activities, which TikTok’s Community Guidelines don’t allow. Content likely to be imitated and cause significant physical harm is removed; content with moderate harm is kept out of the For You feed, restricted to people 18 and over, and may get a warning label.

Can teens join Duet or Stitch challenges?

With limits. TikTok says 13- to 15-year-olds can Duet or Stitch videos made by people over 16, but no one can Duet or Stitch their own videos, and that can’t be changed. For 16- and 17-year-olds, a public account defaults to Friends and can be changed to Everyone; on a private account, no one can Duet or Stitch their videos. Checked against TikTok Help Center: Who can Duet / Stitch with your videos (users under 18)

Can a business account use a challenge’s song?

Only if the song is licensed for commercial use. TikTok says a Business Account can’t use music that isn’t licensed for commercial use, and under Add sound a Business Account sees only Commercial Sounds from TikTok’s Commercial Music Library. Non-commercial music can only go on non-commercial posts from a personal account. Checked against TikTok Help Center: Sounds

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