TikTok launches an opt-in Local Feed in the U.S. leveraging users’ precise location

TikTok on Wednesday announced the launch of a new “Local Feed” in the U.S. version of the app, which displays content related to travel, news, events, shopping, and dining near the user’s current location. The feed’s arrival comes shortly after a change in TikTok’s terms of service under the new U.S. joint venture, which said that the app would begin to collect precise location information from TikTok users.

Today, TikTok confirms the reason it’s now asking for more accurate location information is to help power the Local Feed. However, it notes that users will be able to control whether or not precise location sharing is on, and the default will be set to “off,” making this an opt-in experience.

The Local Feed had rolled out in December to select European markets, including the U.K., France, Italy, and Germany.

The company explains in its announcement that the feed is meant to help users stay connected to their local community, and its posts are shown to people based on their location, the content’s topic, and when the content was posted. This makes it a more current feed of local information — like suggestions of new restaurants to try, local events, shopping suggestions, and more.

The new feature also ties into TikTok’s push to attract small businesses to its app, not only as content producers but as advertisers. This could help insulate it against further regulation and help it to claim, as Meta does, that it should not be reigned in because so many small businesses rely on its services to reach their customers.

TikTok notes that 7.5 million businesses currently use the app to reach global customers, and these businesses support more than 28 million workers, per a 2025 Oxford Economics report. The company also highlighted figures from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which found that 84% of TikTok small business users said the platform helped grow their business, and 75% said TikTok helped them reach customers beyond their local area. In addition, another 74% said TikTok helps them connect with their local community.

As TikTok sees it, the Local Feed will help to generate real-world traffic and sales for these brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S.

The first time users access the Local Feed, they’ll be prompted to allow the app to use their location data. On iOS, for example, the pop-up request will allow users to pick whether they want to allow the activity once or while using the app or not at all.

“This approach is consistent with how many modern apps use location today and gives people the choice to enable it when they want more relevant, local experiences, while keeping them in control,” the company writes in its announcement. However, TikTok would have likely seen a better reception to this feature had it rolled out the request for precise location data before its ownership transition in the U.S., or at least at the same time. That way, the app could at least point to a reason as to why it wanted to collect this additional data.

Still, even if the location data now has a purpose, it’s worth considering whether or not the value of a local feed is worth the privacy risk.

TikTok also notes that the feature will be available only to users 18 and older and will only collect information while the app is in use.