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New to channels? Start with the Channels Overview to see the universal connect flow that every channel shares. This guide walks through the TikTok-specific parts on top of that flow.
Connecting TikTok puts your assistant inside the direct messages of your TikTok Business Account. Someone who taps Message on your profile, clicks a Click-to-Message ad, shares one of your videos, or opens a tiktok.me link lands in a conversation your assistant answers instantly. Everything appears in the same Inbox as your other channels, with the same assistant, the same Knowledge, and the same Memory. TikTok has stricter entry rules than any other channel. Read Before You Start carefully. If your account does not meet all three conditions, the connection is created but no message ever arrives.

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Before You Start

You need three things:
  1. A TikTok Business Account. Personal and Creator accounts cannot be connected. You can switch for free in the TikTok app under Settings and privacy → Account → Switch to Business Account. Your username, videos, and followers stay exactly as they are.
  2. An account registered outside the United States, the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. TikTok decides this by where the account was signed up, not where you or your customers are today. Accounts registered in those places cannot use TikTok messaging through any third-party tool yet.
  3. Direct messages open to everyone. In the TikTok app, go to Settings and privacy → Privacy → Direct messages and allow messages from Everyone. If this is left on “Friends”, customer messages sit in a request folder and never reach your assistant.
Customers in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom can still message you, but TikTok removes the text before it leaves their servers. Those conversations arrive empty, so your assistant cannot answer them. This is a TikTok restriction and applies to every tool, not only Invent.
TikTok Shop messages are separate. This channel covers direct messages sent to your TikTok profile. Messages from TikTok Shop orders run on a different TikTok system and are not included.

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Step 1: Open the TikTok Connect Dialog

From your assistant’s Channels tab, find TikTok Direct Messages in the list and click Connect.
TikTok Direct Messages connect dialog showing a reminder that the account must be a Business Account and is not supported in the EU, Switzerland, or the UK, above a Connection field holding a Connect TikTok button and a disabled Connect Channel button
The reminder inside the dialog repeats the two rules that block most connections: the account has to be a Business Account, and it cannot be registered in the EU, Switzerland, or the UK. The dialog has one field:
  • Connection: the authenticated link to a TikTok Business Account. If this is your first TikTok connection, the dropdown holds a + Connect TikTok button that starts the sign-in. If you already connected TikTok for another assistant, pick that connection and skip to Step 4.

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Step 2: Sign In to TikTok

Open the Connection dropdown and click + Connect TikTok. TikTok’s authorization page opens. This page runs entirely on tiktok.com. Your password is only ever entered on TikTok’s own domain, never on Invent’s. Sign in with the account that owns the messages you want the assistant to handle, then review the permissions TikTok lists. The assistant needs all of them to read incoming messages and send replies.
Sign in with the business owner’s TikTok account, not a personal employee account. Access follows whoever signed in. If that account is deleted, has its password changed, or removes Invent from its authorized apps, the channel stops working until someone reconnects it.

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Step 3: Name the Connection in Invent

TikTok sends you back to Invent and asks you to label the new connection, for example “Brand TikTok DMs”. This name is only used inside Invent. Click Create. The connection is stored in Settings → Connections, where you can rename or disconnect it later.

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Step 4: Pick the Connection

Back on the TikTok dialog, your new connection is already selected. Click Connect Channel.
One TikTok account, one assistant. A TikTok account can only be bound to one assistant at a time. If two assistants need the same account, AI routing is usually a better fit than splitting the inbox.

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Step 5: Send a Test Message

Click the connected TikTok channel to open the test dialog. It shows the connected profile, a QR code to your TikTok page, and an Open TikTok button.
Test your assistant dialog showing the connected TikTok profile, a QR code to it, and Open TikTok, Copy, and Open Inbox buttons
Scan the code with your phone, using a different account from the one you connected, and send a direct message. Your assistant should reply within a few seconds, and the conversation appears in your Inbox, with a TikTok badge on the contact and their handle under their name.
Invent Inbox showing a TikTok conversation, the customer handle under their name, assistant replies in the thread, and an Outside 48h window notice on the reply box
That is it, the assistant is live on TikTok.

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What Goes Through, Each Way

TikTok is not symmetric: customers can send you more than your assistant can send back. Plan your Instructions around this table.
Voice notes and iPhone Live Photos never arrive. TikTok’s messaging API has no audio message type at all, and it cannot hand over a Live Photo even though it records that one was sent. Both reach us empty, with no file to download, so you will not see them in the Inbox and neither will your assistant. The customer sees the message as delivered, so they may think you have it. Ask them to type the question or send a normal photo, or open the TikTok app yourself to look. This applies to every tool built on TikTok messaging, not only Invent.
Write links as plain addresses like https://example.com. TikTok shows the raw text, so a formatted link would reach the customer as unreadable markup.
Referrals are captured as well, so you can see when a conversation started from an ad, a shared video, or a tiktok.me link.

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The 48-Hour Reply Window

TikTok lets you reply for 48 hours after the customer’s last message, and every reply from them opens a fresh window. Once 48 hours pass with no reply, you get three more messages before sends are blocked until they write again. This is twice as long as WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram allow, but it still means a conversation left alone over a long weekend can close. Use Auto Follow-ups to re-engage while the window is open.

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Reusing a Connection Across Assistants

Once a TikTok connection exists in your workspace, any assistant can pick it from the Connection dropdown without signing in again. Manage every connection from Settings → Connections:
  • Rename a connection to keep the list readable as you add more.
  • Reconnect with Edit then Reconnect if TikTok’s session expires or someone removes Invent from the account’s authorized apps.
  • Disconnect to remove the link. Any assistant still using it stops sending and receiving.

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Troubleshooting

Check the three entry rules in Before You Start, in this order. First, confirm the account is a Business Account, not Personal or Creator. Second, confirm direct messages are open to Everyone in the TikTok app, since messages from strangers otherwise wait in a request folder. Third, check where the account was registered, because accounts signed up in the US, the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK cannot use TikTok messaging through any third-party tool.
The customer’s TikTok account is registered in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom. TikTok removes the message text for those regions before it reaches any third-party tool. You will see that a conversation started, but there is nothing to answer. Reply from the TikTok app directly if you need to reach that customer.
Three limits apply. The file has to be a JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP, it has to be under 3 MB, and both you and the customer have to be in regions where TikTok allows image messages. Text still goes through when an image is rejected, so the customer receives the reply without the picture.
TikTok only allows replies to customers who messaged you first, and only within 48 hours of their last message. There is no template or paid message to reopen a conversation the way WhatsApp allows. Run campaigns that invite people to message you, for example a Click-to-Message ad or a tiktok.me link, rather than trying to message first.
TikTok’s access expired or was revoked. Common reasons are a password change, or someone removing Invent from the account’s authorized apps. Open Settings → Connections, find the TikTok connection, click Fix or Edit, then Reconnect.
They should not. Welcome messages, suggested questions, and keyword replies configured in TikTok Business Suite are filtered out before your assistant sees them, so it never answers your own automation. If you do see one, report it to support with the conversation link.

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Next Steps

Channels Overview

See the universal connection flow that every channel uses

Connections

Manage every authenticated link, including TikTok, in one place

Capabilities

See everything your assistant can send and receive

Tracking

Capture referrals from TikTok ads, shared posts, and short links on every conversation