How to Approve Comments on TikTok

Manually approving every comment on your TikTok videos gives you complete control over the conversation happening around your content. For creators and brands focused on building a specific kind of community, this is a powerful and often necessary tool. This guide will walk you through exactly how to turn on comment approvals, streamline your moderation workflow, and use TikTok's other filtering tools to cultivate a safer, more positive environment for your audience.

Why You Might Want to Approve Comments on TikTok

Before jumping into the step-by-step instructions, it helps to understand why this feature is so useful. The default setting on TikTok allows all comments to appear instantly, leading to a freewheeling, real-time conversation. While that’s great for spontaneous engagement, it can also create problems. Turning on comment approvals changes the dynamic from reactive moderation (deleting bad comments after they appear) to proactive community management (only allowing good comments to show up).

Here’s why you might want to consider this setting:

• Prevent Spam and Scams: This is the most common reason. If your videos frequently attract bots posting suspicious links or "get rich quick" schemes, approving comments stops them in their tracks. Their comments will never go public.
• Maintain Brand Safety: If you're a business, consultant, or creator with a professional brand, your comment section is a reflection of your company. Approving comments prevents hateful language, offensive remarks, or off-topic arguments from being associated with your brand.
• Protect Your Community and Your Mental Health: Public figures and creators covering sensitive or controversial topics often face harassment and trolling. Filtering comments creates a "safe zone" for your audience to engage respectfully and shields you from relentless negativity.
• Cultivate a Positive and On-Topic Vibe: You get to set the tone for the discussion. By only approving comments that are constructive, kind, or genuinely add to the conversation, you train your audience on what kind of interaction is welcome. Over time, this fosters a much healthier community.

Understanding Your TikTok Comment Control Options

TikTok gives you a ton of control over your comment section, and "approving all comments" is just one part of a larger toolkit. It’s located within the "Comment Filtering" settings. Let's look at the main options you have.

The Main Settings: From Wide Open to Locked Down

• Everyone (or Everyone with restrictions): This is the default. Anyone can comment, though you might set restrictions based on follower status in certain regions.
• Friends: Only users who you follow back (mutuals) can comment on your videos. This is great for private accounts but very restrictive for creators looking for growth.
• No one: This turns off comments on all your videos entirely. It’s an extreme measure and generally not recommended, as it kills all engagement and community-building potential.

The Filtration Layers: How You Curate the Conversation

This is where the real power lies. Even with comments set to "Everyone," you can apply smart filters.

• Filter All Comments: This is the setting we’re focusing on. When turned on, no comment appears publicly until you manually approve it.
• Filter Spam and Offensive Comments: This is TikTok’s AI-powered filter. It's on by default and automatically hides comments that its algorithm detects as common spam or offensive language. It's a great first line of defense but not foolproof.
• Filter Keywords: This allows you to create your own custom list of words and phrases. Any comment containing a word from your list will be hidden automatically until you review it.

How to Approve Comments on TikTok: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to take control? Turning on comment approval is simple. Just follow these steps on the TikTok mobile app.

1. Open your Profile: Launch the TikTok app and tap on the Profile icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
2. Go to Settings and Privacy: Tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top-right corner to open the main menu. Select "Settings and privacy" from the options.
3. Select Privacy Settings: On the new screen, you’ll see several options. Tap on "Privacy."
4. Navigate to the Comments Menu: Scroll down the Privacy page until you find the "Interactions" section. Tap on "Comments."
5. Activate "Filter All Comments": This screen is your command center for comment moderation. In the "Comment Filters" section, you’ll see a toggle for "Filter all comments." Tap the toggle to turn it on (it will turn green).

That's it! From now on, any new comment posted on any of your videos - past or future - will be held for your review instead of being posted publicly. Your audience won't know their comment is pending, from their perspective, it will post as usual, but only they can see it until you approve it.

Managing Your Comment Approval Queue

Once you’ve activated the filter, the next step is learning how to manage the pending comments. If you post frequently or have a large audience, this queue can fill up fast, so having a good workflow is important.

Where to Find Filtered Comments

TikTok puts your pending comments in a special review queue. Here’s how to find it:

1. Go back to the "Comments" settings page (Profile > Menu > Settings and privacy > Privacy > Comments).
2. Tap on "Review filtered comments."
3. This will open a screen showing you all the comments that are waiting for your approval. You will see the comment itself, the username of the person who posted it, and the video it was posted on.

Another common way to get there is through your activity notifications. If you have comments pending review, you'll often see a notification in your Inbox under the "Activity" tab that guides you to the review queue.

How to Approve or Delete Comments

Inside the "Review filtered comments" queue, you have three options for each comment:

• Approve: Tapping this button makes the comment public on your video. It will appear for everyone to see and reply to.
• Delete: Tapping this permanently removes the comment. The user who posted it will not be notified, the comment will simply disappear for them as well.
• Tap the comment for more options: By tapping the comment text itself, you can usually Report the comment or Block the account that posted it, which is ideal for dealing with persistent spammers or harassers.

Best Practices for an Efficient Workflow

• Set aside dedicated time. Instead of checking constantly, block out 10-15 minutes once or twice a day to clear your queue. This is more efficient than checking every hour.
• Start with the oldest comments. Clear comments on older videos first so that ongoing conversations can continue.
• Don’t be afraid to delete. The point of this feature is to curate. If a comment is low-effort, irrelevant, or just doesn't add value, you don't have to approve it.

The Pros and Cons of Filtering Every Comment

Holding all comments for review is a powerful choice, but it's not without its tradeoffs. Before you commit, consider both sides.

Pros: The Benefits of Full Control

• Total Brand Safety: Nothing questionable ever slips through. Your comment section becomes a perfect reflection of your brand values.
• Prevents Negative Social Proof: A wave of trolling comments can negatively influence how new viewers perceive your content. By filtering, you stop this before it starts.
• Builds a "Walled Garden": You can create an incredibly safe and welcoming space that makes your true fans feel comfortable engaging with you and each other.

Cons: The Potential Downsides

• Slower Engagement: Conversations can't happen in real time. A viewer leaves a comment, and it may be hours before you approve it, by which time the initial spark of engagement is gone.
• It's Time-Consuming: For accounts with heavy engagement, reviewing hundreds or thousands of comments a day can become a major time commitment.
• Can Hurt Early Video Momentum: Comments are a strong signal to the TikTok algorithm that people are engaging with your video. A delay in comments appearing could potentially slow a video's initial push onto the For You Page.

A Lighter Approach: Using Keyword Filters

If filtering every single comment feels too heavy-handed, using keyword filters is a fantastic middle ground. This lets you auto-hide the worst comments while allowing most harmless conversation to flow freely. You can and should use this even if you have "Filter All Comments" on, as it pre-sorts some of your work.

To set it up, go to Comments > Filter keywords. Here you can add a list of words or phrases, and TikTok will automatically hold any comment containing them for review.

Good Keywords to Start With:

• Common curse words and slurs.
• Spammy terms ("Follow me," "Check my profile," "DM for info").
• The names of competitors (if you want to prevent them from being mentioned).
• Any specific terms harassers have used against you in the past.

This allows you to focus your moderation energy only on the comments most likely to be problematic, saving you significant time and effort.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, managing your TikTok comments gives you the power to shape your community. Whether you choose to approve every single comment, use smart keyword filters, or rely on TikTok's built-in AI, these tools are there to help you create a space that feels safe, positive, and aligned with your content goals and brand identity.

Of course, as your presence grows, managing comments and DMs across TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms can feel like a genuine challenge. At Postbase, we built a unified social inbox specifically to combat that feeling of being overwhelmed. We consolidate all your comments and DMs into one clean, manageable stream, so you can reply, delete, and engage with your community without constantly switching between apps. It turns reactive chaos into a calm, streamlined workflow.