Jacob Sartorius, age 15, spends more time than most teenagers staring into his phone's selfie camera. He uses the app Musical.ly to record himself mouthing the words to songs — drawing hearts with his hands and "smizing" — and shares the video with his 18.9 million followers.
Musical.ly is the social-media platform of choice for Generation Z. The app launched in 2014 and has racked up an impressive 215 million users — or "musers," as they're known. Teens post 15-second clips of themselves lip-syncing, dancing to popular music, and pulling stunts.
Its growth has caused others to take note. In November, Chinese social-media giant Toutiao announced it purchased Musical.ly in a deal valued up to $1 billion, according to TechCrunch.
I talked with a handful of middle schoolers for Musical.ly tips and entered the mysterious world of teen tech to see what the buzz is about. Here are the basics.
When you open the Musical.ly app, it defaults to a feed of featured videos.
These are often the coolest, most-liked videos of the day. The Featured feed is also a good place to find inspiration.
Users, or "musers," include the hashtag #featureme in their posts to help their chances of being discovered by the app's curators.
The Follow tab shows you videos from the musers you follow.
A majority of teens I talked to said they prefer the Follow tab to Featured. Here, they can easily see what content comes from their friends, as opposed to strangers on the internet.
Being at least 10 years older than most musers, I don't have many friends on the app, so I mostly followed mainstream celebrities like Selena Gomez, Jason Derulo, and Ariana Grande.
Here's what a typical Musical.ly video looks like.
#Twins 💕😋 Song: what makes you beautiful ~ one direction 🎶
Identical twins Lisa and Lena, from Germany, have gained about 24 million followers on Musical.ly and are the third-most-followed people on Instagram in Germany.
The 15-year-olds joined Musical.ly in December 2015, and their videos have surged in popularity and production quality, thanks to professional-grade lighting, their synchronized dances, and matching outfits from the girls' own clothing line.
There are some very talented dancers on Musical.ly, as well.
Dopeeee!! @imraino 🔥🔥🔥comment your reaction 👇🏼
More teens are now uploading comedy skits, like this dub of Drake's song "Child's Play."
When you Drake af @jakepaul @alissaviolet
Though a majority of videos feature lip-syncing, you're really only limited by your imagination.
Every Musical.ly video displays the muser's username, a caption, and the name of the song and artist.
The caption is often packed with hashtags. Just as hashtags trend on Twitter, challenges go viral on Musical.ly. Users upload videos of themselves performing a task, like dabbing for the #DabChallenge and include the appropriate hashtag.
You can tap the hashtag to see more.
You can also see how popular the video is.
Hearts are the "likes" of Musical.ly. This video has 195 hearts so far.
Comments allow users to leave messages on others' videos.
And if you like what you see, you can click profile to watch more content by the user.
Your profile is a space to personalize your account.
Users write a little bio and upload a photo to complete their profile.
The crown next to Lauren Godwin's photo indicates that she is a top performer on the app.
Fans can subscribe to notifications to receive an alarm whenever their favorite users post a new video.
Ready to get started? Click the pink plus button.
Don't be intimidated.
All the kids are doing it.
You can shoot a video and upload it to the app or start from scratch.
If you want to create a compilation video of your footage from a family vacation, your best bet is to upload videos from your phone's library.
Since I was prepared to shoot and publish in a one-two punch, I opted to "pick music" and record, rather than use my phone's native camera app to shoot the clip.
Musical.ly hosts an online library of the top hits to choose from.
Songs are sorted by artist, genre, and theme, such as hip-hop, comedy, movie dialogue, and chart-toppers. Each clip lasts about 15 to 30 seconds.
You can also select from your phone's music library.
The advantage to using music from your own library is that you can pick the exact 15-second excerpt you'd like to dub. If you pick from Musical.ly's library, you're limited to the excerpt they make available.
I found one of the few jams I know the words to: Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much."
You can tap the song to see other musers' renditions of the classic country hit.
I was surprised to find some Shania Twain fans on the app who are closer to my age.
I turned to Google Play Music for a quick refresher on the lyrics.
"OK, so you're a rocket scientist."
"That don't impress me much."
Got it.
In shooting mode, you have a number of tools at your fingertips to help you capture the moment.
Using the scroll to trim music feature (the icon looks like a pair of scissors), I could sample the song at different starting points.
Most users hit reverse camera to use the selfie-facing lens. I did the same.
If you prefer to step back and show both hands in the frame, you can press timer and the camera will start capturing video five seconds later.
In a dark room? Hit flash.
There are filters galore. Musical.ly's "lenses," much like filters on Snapchat, let you change your facial features, from the size of your eyes, mouth, and nose, to your lip color.
Musical.ly's filter library has the usual suspects, too. The app uses artificial intelligence to turn musers into a deer, a Coachella goddess, a twin, a rockstar, and more.
Ultimately, I opted for a simple pink lip color with no additional filters.
Don't overthink it. Just shoot.
To record, hold down the pink button with the camera icon.
Most teens I spoke with said that, rather than rehearse in the mirror, they will just shoot the video over and over until they get it right. Practice makes perfect.
It took me about three takes performing "That Don't Impress Me Much" before I was satisfied.
You're almost ready to publish!
Like Instagram, Musical.ly provides postproduction-editing tools to help your video look its best.
Filters alter the color, contrast, and saturation of your videos to create a certain mood.
You can drop stickers anywhere in the frame, resize, and rotate. I searched for emoticons that matched the lyrics of the song and went ham on stickers.
Don't forget to write a caption. Including popular hashtags can help you earn hearts.
Once you click to post, Musical.ly prompts you to share the video with your friends on other social-networking apps.
Teens told me they often share their videos to Instagram to get more eyes on their content. I did the same.
Unfortunately, your caption and the credit given to the artist don't automatically transfer to Instagram.
Musical.ly displays this message reminding users to credit the song and artist in their Instagram posts. Hopefully they will roll out a better solution soon.
I rewrote my caption, making sure to credit the song and artist.
It was go-time.
Voilà! Here's my Musical.ly video.
OK, so you’re a rocket scientist. #shaniaislife #shaniatwain #thatdontimpressmemuch #musically
Now I dare you to make your own.
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