TikTok is launching a new “Campus Hub,” the company told TechCrunch in an email Thursday. The new hub features dedicated college group chats and personalized feeds designed to help students stay connected to their campus communities, even when they’re away for the summer.
The new hub builds on the app’s campus verification feature, which launched last August and allows users to add their campus to their TikTok profile and browse a list of students at their school to find and connect with others on their campus. The feature is available at more than 6,000 universities through TikTok’s partnership with UNiDAYSa student verification platform that confirms student status.
Once users have confirmed their student status, they will have access to the new dedicated campus hub.
Students can create and participate in group chats with up to 300 classmates. These group chats are only for verified students in the same school. TikTok says these chats can be used to stay in touch, schedule a reunion, or continue conversations over the summer.
While these conversations could be useful for the summer, TikTok may also aim to get students to use its app for everyday school communication, such as classroom or club discussions that usually take place on other platforms like Discord, Facebook Messenger or Instagram.
As for the new college feeds, users will see a personalized feed that displays a mix of content posted by verified students and content related to their university. TikTok says these streams will allow students to stay connected to campus life, trends and updates from wherever they are.
The new features are reminiscent of Facebook’s early days, when the platform was built entirely around college campuses and required people to sign up with a valid “.edu” email address to connect with classmates and meet people at their university.
It’s worth noting that TikTok isn’t the only social media giant looking to make it easier for students to connect with each other, as Meta-owned Instagram launched a feature last year that’s nearly identical to TikTok’s campus verification feature, also allowing students in the US to add their college or university to their student profile banner and browse their student list.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
