If you thought TikTok was only about dance trends, viral skits, and endless scrolls of entertainment, think again. The app is now dipping into a little nostalgia by taking a page out of Facebook’s old playbook — and no, not the cringey pokes or Farmville invites. TikTok is rolling out a new feature called Campus Verification, designed to help college students connect with others on their campus.
Here’s how it works: students can head to their TikTok profile, tap the “Add school” option, and then plug in their school name along with their graduation year. To keep things authentic (and prevent randoms from sneaking in), TikTok requires students to verify using their academic email address. Once verified, their school and grad year show up on their profile, opening the door to a whole new layer of connections.
From there, students can browse their school’s page, filter classmates by graduation year, and even sort profiles to see who’s the most-followed on campus. Think of it as a digital campus quad — but instead of bumping into people on the way to class, you’re scrolling to find them online.
The feature isn’t just limited to a handful of schools. Thanks to TikTok’s partnership with UNiDAYS, it’s launching across more than 6,000 universities worldwide. TikTok says the goal is to make its platform a hub for real-world belonging, echoing what Facebook once set out to do when it first launched exclusively for Harvard students back in 2004.
Of course, with every shiny new social feature comes the inevitable question of privacy. Some critics worry this could make it easier to track or target people online. Thankfully, the feature is completely optional. If you’d rather keep your TikTok world separate from your student life, you can skip it altogether.
Interestingly, TikTok isn’t alone in this idea. Instagram was reportedly testing something similar last year, though it’s unclear if Meta plans to bring it to life.
Whether this becomes the next big way to find classmates or just another short-lived social experiment, one thing is clear: TikTok isn’t done evolving beyond lip-syncs and viral dances.
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