What Is the TikTok Logo?
The TikTok logo is a white musical note on black, edged with offset outlines in cyan and fuchsia that make it look as if it is vibrating. It belongs to TikTok, the short-video app from the Chinese technology company ByteDance, which launched outside China in September 2017 as the international version of Douyin, a Chinese app first released in 2016.
The note appears on its own as the app icon and beside the TikTok wordmark in the full logo. The note icon is available as the TikTok logo SVG.
TikTok Logo Facts
| Introduced | By September 2017, when TikTok launched outside China |
| Symbol | A musical note with cyan and fuchsia offset edges |
| Logo type | Pictorial mark: a musical note |
| Earlier mark | A pink musical note above A.ME lettering, for Douyin's first name, A.me |
| Owner | ByteDance |
What the TikTok Logo Means
TikTok has told the story behind the note itself. In a 2019 post on its careers blog, the company said the logo was drawn by a young in-house designer who loved going to concerts, especially rock concerts. Standing in a dark crowd and looking up at a bright stage, he wanted to recreate that feeling for an app that gives creators a stage of their own.
The details follow from that idea. The black background is the darkened venue, chosen to build anticipation for what is about to be performed. The coloured edges are what the company calls an electronic wave effect, added so the note would stand out against the dark. The designer tried several versions of the note before settling on the one used.
Design writers also point out that the note can be read as a lowercase d, for Douyin, a Chinese name usually translated as "shaking sound". The trembling outline fits that name.
TikTok Logo History
ByteDance launched its short-video app in China on 20 September 2016 under the name A.me, and renamed it Douyin that December. In September 2017 it took the app abroad as TikTok, keeping the same note.
On 9 November 2017 ByteDance agreed to buy Musical.ly, a lip-sync video app, for nearly a billion dollars. On 2 August 2018 the two apps were merged into one under the TikTok name. Around the same time the name, first written as two words, Tik Tok, was set as a single word, TikTok.
On 17 May 2023 TikTok introduced TikTok Sans, a custom typeface made with the Swiss foundry Grilli Type, for its app and brand touchpoints.
TikTok and Douyin
TikTok and Douyin are separate apps for different markets, but ByteDance kept the same vibrating note for both when it took the app abroad. Where TikTok chose a sound for its icon, Instagram chose a camera (compare the Instagram logo). For more brands like TikTok, browse our social media logos.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the TikTok logo supposed to be?
A musical note. Its coloured edges were added as an electronic wave effect to make it stand out against the black background.
What inspired the TikTok logo?
TikTok says its designer, a fan of rock concerts, wanted to capture the feeling of looking from a dark crowd up at a brightly lit stage.
Is the TikTok logo a letter d?
It can be read as a lowercase d for Douyin, TikTok's sister app in China, though TikTok's own account of the logo describes it as a musical note.
Does Douyin use the same logo as TikTok?
Yes. Douyin and TikTok both use the vibrating note.