TikTok FYP teardown: what changed in October

We noticed a shift on our test accounts starting late September, and by mid-October it was consistent enough to write about. TikTok's FYP dropped its hook window from roughly 2 seconds to something closer to 1.5.

The test setup

Ten test accounts. Three videos each. Same three creative concepts across all ten, uploaded in randomized order over the 6-week window. Half got a 10K view push at the 30-min mark, half got nothing.

What we found

Completion rate on the first 3 seconds now correlates with 6-hour reach at r = 0.79 (up from 0.62 in June). Videos that dropped below 40% completion in the first 3 seconds lost momentum sharply.

What to change

Cut your first 1.5 seconds hard. If your face doesn't appear or something visually interesting doesn't happen by frame 45, you're already losing. Not new advice, but the window is tighter than before.