How to do a voiceover on TikTok (for beginners)

A voiceover is your voice playing over the video, recorded after you film. It is the easiest way to show up on TikTok without talking to the camera: film your hands, your garden, your kitchen or your screen, then explain what is happening in your own words.

Tap the plus button and record or upload your video. Move to the editing screen and look for Voiceover: TikTok has placed it in the right-hand toolbar and inside the audio editing menu at different times, but it always has a microphone icon. Drag to where you want the voice to start, tap the red button and speak. Tap again to stop, then tap Save or Done.

When you record a voiceover, TikTok usually gives you an option to keep or remove the original sound. Turn the original sound off if it has background chatter, or lower its volume in the sound settings so your voice sits on top. If you add music, keep it low.

Write three or four short lines before you record, one per scene, and say them like you are talking to one friend. You can borrow a structure from these voiceover script examples. Record in a soft room (a bedroom or a closet with clothes beats a kitchen), and hold the phone about a hand's width from your mouth.

TikTok's recorder can't remove background noise or the ums. For videos you care about, record in the free voiceover recorder, use noise removal and filler word removal, then combine voice and video in an editor such as CapCut before uploading the finished video to TikTok.