How to Allow Duets on TikTok

TikTok Duets are one of the platform’s most powerful tools for collaboration, growth, and pure creative fun, letting you place your video side-by-side with another user's content. By enabling this feature, you open the door for others to interact with your videos, react to your content, and kickstart trends. This guide breaks down exactly how to allow Duets on your TikTok account, manage settings for individual videos, and use the feature strategically to grow your audience.

What is a TikTok Duet (and Why Is It a Big Deal)?

Before jumping into the settings, let’s get clear on what a Duet is. A Duet is a feature that allows a user to create a video that appears directly next to another user's original video, both playing simultaneously in a split-screen format. It’s a direct, visual conversation.

This is different from a Stitch, where a user clips a few seconds from another video and then films their own response that plays after the clip. Duets are conversational, Stitches are sequential.

So, why should you enable Duets? The benefits are huge for creators and brands looking to build an organic presence:

• Exponential Reach: When someone Duets your video, your original content is shown to their entire audience, effectively introducing your account to a new set of potential followers.
• Community Building: Allowing Duets invites your followers to engage with you on a deeper level. It turns passive viewers into active participants, making them feel like part of your creative community.
• Unlimited Content Ideas: Encouraging Duets means you tap into the creativity of others. They can add funny commentary, contrasting viewpoints, or build upon your original idea, generating loads of user-generated content (UGC) centered around your brand.
• Trend Participation: Many TikTok trends are built on Duets, from dance challenges to "sing with me" prompts. Enabling Duets allows your brand and followers to join a larger cultural conversation.

How to Allow Duets on TikTok: The Universal Setting

First things first, you need to enable Duets at the account level. This sets the default permission for all the videos you post. You can always change the setting for an individual video later, but getting this foundation right is the first step.

Here’s the step-by-step process to adjust your universal Duet settings:

1. Open TikTok and go to your profile. Tap the Profile icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
2. Access the Settings and privacy menu. Tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" icon) in the top-right corner of your profile page.
3. Select "Settings and privacy." From the menu that appears at the bottom, tap this option to open your account settings.
4. Go to "Privacy." Look for the Privacy option, which is usually found in the "Account" section, and tap on it.
5. Scroll down to the "Interactions" section. Here, you'll see a list of features you can manage, including "Comments and stories," "Mentions and tags," and more.
6. Tap on "Duet." This will take you to the control screen for all your Duet permissions.

Choosing Your Default Duet Setting

Once you tap "Duet," you'll be shown a few options to choose from. Let’s break down what each one means for you.

• Everyone: This is the recommended setting for almost all creators and brands focused on growth. It means that any user on TikTok, whether they follow you or not, can Duet your videos. This maximizes your potential for reach and virality.
• Followers that you follow back (Friends): This is a more restrictive option. Only users who you follow, and who also follow you back, can Duet your videos. This setting keeps things within a smaller, private circle, which might be suitable for personal accounts but severely limits growth potential for brands or public figures.
• Only me: This setting completely disables Duets across all of your videos. No one will be able to Duet any of your content. You’d use this if you want zero collaboration and full control, but it effectively removes a powerful growth tool from your arsenal.

After selecting your preferred option, the setting is saved automatically. For maximum visibility and engagement, choosing Everyone is almost always the best move.

Managing Duet Settings for Individual Videos

Your universal account setting is just the default. You have the freedom to change the Duet permissions on a video-by-video basis. This is incredibly useful if you want to allow Duets on a fun trend video but disable them on a more serious, brand-focused announcement.

Adjusting Duet Permissions Before You Post

When you're about to publish a new video, you get one final chance to set its permissions.

1. Create your video as you normally would, editing and adding sounds or text.
2. Proceed to the Post screen, where you write your caption, add hashtags, and tag other accounts.
3. On this screen, look for "More options" near the bottom and tap it.
4. You'll see a toggle switch for Allow Duet. TikTok will automatically have this turned on or off based on your universal privacy settings. You can tap this switch to override the default for this specific video.
5. If your universal setting is "Only me," you can switch it on here to allow Duets. If your universal setting is "Everyone," you can switch it off to prevent Duets on this particular video.
6. Once you've set it how you want, go back to the previous screen and hit Post.

Changing Duet Settings on a Video You Already Posted

Sometimes you change your mind. Maybe a video is getting unexpected attention, and you want to open it up for Duets. Or perhaps you want to shut down Duets on an older piece of content. It's easy to do.

1. Go to your profile page and find the video you want to adjust.
2. Tap on the video to open it in full screen.
3. Tap on the three dots (...) on the right side of the screen to open the options menu.
4. On the bottom row of icons, swipe to the right until you find "Privacy settings." Tap it.
5. Here, you will see the "Allow Duet" toggle switch for this specific video. Tap it to turn Duets on or off.

That's it! The change is instant. This flexibility means you have complete control over how your audience interacts with your entire content library.

Creative Strategies: Getting People to Actually Duet Your Videos

Simply allowing Duets is just step one. To get the most out of the feature, you need to create content that actively invites collaboration. It's not enough to just enable the button, you need to give people a reason to press it.

1. Create an "Open Verse Challenge"

If you have any musical or lyrical talent, this is a classic. Record yourself singing a chorus and leave spaces for others to add a verse. Rappers, singers, and poets can use this template to let other artists shine, quickly spreading their original sound across the platform.

2. Post a Reaction Prompt

Create content that begs for a reaction. This can be:

• A shocking reveal: A before-and-after of a design project, a makeup transformation, or a surprising skill.
• A bold opinion: Share a "hot take" relevant to your industry and ask people to Duet with their reaction.
• A personal story: Tell a brief, relatable story and end with a prompt like, "Duet this and tell me if this has happened to you."

3. Host a Call-and-Response

This works for just about any niche. For example, a personal trainer can film themselves doing a single exercise move and ask people to Duet the video while trying the move themselves. A chef can show one step of a recipe and ask viewers to Duet with the finished product. These prompts give users a clear and simple way to participate.

4. The "Duet This If..." Trend

Start your own prompt that can be used by anyone. The template is simple: create a video that says, "Duet this if..." followed by something relatable. Examples:

"Duet this if your dog has zero spatial awareness." (Show a clip of a goofy dog.)

"Duet this and show me your messiest office desk."

This format is easy to understand and gives people a perfect reason to share a piece of their own life in response to yours.

5. Duet with Yourself

Showcase progress by Dueting an older video of yourself. An artist can Duet their art from a year ago to show how much their skills have improved. A small business owner can Duet their first-ever product video to show how far they’ve come. This is a powerful storytelling tool that reinforces your journey and inspires your audience.

Final Thoughts

Enabling and encouraging Duets is about more than flipping a switch in your settings, it’s a strategic decision to embrace the collaborative nature of TikTok and invite your audience to co-create with you. By setting your account to allow public Duets and creating content that actively begs for a response, you can tap into a powerful engine for organic growth and community building.

To run a successful Duet strategy, you need great content, but you also need consistency. Planning your posts out in advance - including those specifically designed to be Dueted - is a huge part of the puzzle. At Postbase, we built our platform with a visual-first approach because we know how important video content is for modern social media. Our drag-and-drop calendar helps you plan weeks of TikToks at a glance, making it simple to organize your content ideas and ensure you're regularly publishing material that gets your community excited to collaborate.