Top TikTok Trends for Brands to Follow (Updated May 2026)

TikTok had over 900 million worldwide users in 2025, signalling huge interest for the platform. Once assumed to be a social media platform that’s just for kids, the TikTok user base is diversifying fast with brands, influencers, YouTubers, parents, and even grandparents joining the fun.

TikTok Trends are always changing, and brands wanting to make an impact on the social channel will want to make time to discover what’s trending on TikTok. Knowing what’s trending right now is key to creating videos that are engaging to audiences, and will inspire them to click on your link in bio.

We’ve been watching (sometimes a little too much) and keeping a pulse on the biggest trends audiences are jumping on.

Videos can become viral trends themselves and users can share them much like songs and sounds. TikTokers are able to Stitch viral videos using this feature to react to content or continue the story of the original video with their own funny or insightful additions. Brands are getting in on the fun by leveraging the creative potential of stitching, duets, and reactions to inspire entertaining user-generated content.

TikTok creators infuse their unique flair into trends, with shared TikTok sounds and hashtags acting as the glue that binds these creative remixes. In crafting an effective TikTok marketing strategy, prioritize concepts that offer easy replication, sprinkled with elements of fun, surprise, and a trending audio track for maximum impact.

TikTok Trends for May 2026 

Discover the TikTok trends taking over in May.

The Sound Of 

Whether you’re a restaurant, food and beverage brand, or simply want to celebrate Summer’s arrival with your favorite drink, this is a fun trend to try. Add the caption “the sound of water vs. the sound of a (drink here).” First, stir the water, then, stir the ‘fun’ drink of choice and add an upbeat, fun, and playful song.

Top 5 Horror Movies 

This is a fun trend to poke fun at everything, big or small, that bring discomfort, inconvenience, or horror to your life. Share a short video of yourself, with a caption listing your 5 top horror movies. For brands, try including some pet peeves or issues from your industry, like the example from the orthodontist below.

TikTok Trends for April 2026 

Tap into these recent TikTok trends to drive awareness, reach, and have a little fun this Spring. 

Airpod Switch

This a fun and easy trend, perfect to partake in if employee BTS is a part of your brand identity. Simply film yourself bumping into a coworker, dropping your airpods or headphones, and ‘accidentally’ switching them when you retreive them from the ground. Try this trend with a customer or creator, playing each song 

Bieberchella 

Bieberchella, hallelujah. This TikTok trend uses Justin Bieber’s ‘EVERYTHING HALLELUJAH’ to call out your favorite things, each one followed by a “hallelujah,” layered over a casual clip or selfie. Brands can use it to highlight products, customer habits, or everyday moments that align with their audience.

Your Friend Is So…

This is a funny, comedic trend for brands and creators. Using this original sound in your video, film yourself saying “your friend is so funny, charming, brilliant, etc.” (with subtitles), while the other participant says “but that’s you?”, before turning the camera back on ‘the friend’ looking self-satisfied or striking a fun pose.   

TikTok Trends for March 2026 

Feeling lucky on social media this March? Try these trends throughout the month and into April. 

Boarding Call 

Have time to kill in an airport? Have some fun at your expense and pretend they’re boarding for specific traits your travel partner has. To participate in this trend, simply film your travel partner waiting at your gate, say who they’re boarding based on their personality trait in your best flight attendant voice (for example, “Now boarding girls who are addicted to matcha”), and film them pretending to get up to board.

What Were You Like in the ‘90’s? 

While this trend is popular with celebrities, it’s also being used by brands to celebrate their founders and give audiences a glimpse into your brand’s origin stories. Use the song ‘Iris’ by The Goo Goo Dolls, and share a montage of your founder, other key members of your team, or even photos of your brand in the 90’s (think event photos, old branding, or beloved products). 

This is Who…

This is a fun trend that gives audiences a glimpse into your team as babies. Simply collect childhood photos from your team, and share a montage of each photo and with a quick sentence explaining what each team member does with this text format, “This is who is,” with a description of their role. For example, “This is who’s replying to your social media comments.”

TikTok Trends for February 2026 

Whether your brand is celebrating Galentine’s, Valentine’s, or anything in between, here are the latest TikTok trends to know in 2026. 

It Was My Time 

Perfect for the winter months, this trend requires a video of a person or inanimate object surprising you or hurtling towards you, with the text “Me doing (insert activity here) but this (insert object/person here) decided it was my time”. Whether it’s a chair in the wind or a friend trying to scare you, this is the perfect trend to repurpose that old footage in your camera roll or poke fun at windy, inclement weather. 

Not Sure What To Say? Sorry 

This is a fun audio trend with a variety of use cases, originating from an X Factor Lithuania audition where a contestant forgot the words to Justin Bieber’s song ‘Sorry’. Creators are using this sound in humorous content where they joke about bad apologies, making a mistake, or generally fumbling something. 

Faithful or Traitor?

Whether you’re watching this season of The Traitors or not (and we highly recommend watching), this is the perfect trend to have a little fun with your team. Most content centers around who among your teammates is safe to gossip with, so have some fun selecting your own personal traitors and faithfuls. 

2026 or 2016? 

Revive your hydroflask, unicorn-themed drinks, and chokers, because 2016 is back. This is an open trend brands can have fun with: think sharing how your product or branding has evolved in the past 10 years, sharing behind-the-scenes photos of your founder or employees in 2016, or use TikTok’s 2016 filter to craft your own 2016 inspiration. 

TikTok Trends for January 2026

Ring in 2026 with style and lots of laugh using the latest TikTok trends. 

John Hamm in the Club

Use this trend to celebrate the little and big things that make you feel blissful, just like the clip of John Hamm in the club from the TV show ‘Your Friends and Neighbours”. 

You’re So Lucky 

Want to brag about your most recent accomplishment? This is the perfect trend for you. Using a carousel, screenshot, or short video, use a text overlay to write “you’re so lucky”, then list some of the things you did to make sure you showed up and worked to reach your goals. 

Day 1 

While January is the start of New Year’s Resolutions, this trend can be shared anytime during the month (or beyond). This trend takes a different approach, and is perfect to poke fun at a particular weakness or even something you don’t intend to give up, like Diet Coke. In the example below, the creator shares ‘day 1 of no shopping’, ‘day 2 of no shopping’, and right back to ‘day 1 of no shopping’, poking fun at her love of shopping. 

In short, a TikTok trend is a collection of viral, usually short videos featuring popular sounds, hashtags, dances, or challenges. While some videos are an exact duplication of the original, TikTok gives users a lot of freedom to be more abstract or personal in how they want to participate in the trend.

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It’s impossible to scroll down your “For You” page without coming across a new hashtag like #picnictime or #booktok. The topics change frequently, and typical clips show people in hilariously exaggerated scenarios, surprisingly informative and hyper-relatable. The types of content that are taking over your ‘For You’ page typically come from three fundamental categories:

• Trending sounds
• Trending videos
• Trending hashtags

Several recocurring themes define what makes content from these categories become top TikTok trends. The main being humor, as funny videos tend to get more shares and repeated views, both critical factors for TikTok's feed-ranking algorithm. Videos that have an element of surprise or something unexpected also have a higher chance of going viral, again feeding into shareability and reach. 

Relatability also plays a part in what will and won’t become a trend. Short-form videos climb the virality charts the fastest. Ideas that land quickly, and a broad swath of the population can instantly identify with, are the ideas that make it onto the “For You” page.

One of the most refreshing parts about TikTok is the lo-fi style of videos. Post-production is done in the app using easy-to-find native tools, and the editing is focused on transitions, video effects, and sounds, more than it is on filters. 

Another interesting element of TikTok trending sounds and videos is how content can go viral weeks and even months after being posted. Using TikTok Insights can give context as to why that happens, and how to replicate it in future posts. 

TikTok’s unique audience separates it from other social channels. The majority of platform users  are young, and users are eager to interact with their community through   likes, shares and comments. Videos easily take off, reaching hundreds of thousands of views, much faster than other channels.

What is the most popular trend on TikTok?

The beauty of TikTok comes from the fact that there isn’t a single most popular trend at any moment. What is most popular or viral is literally changing every single day. The most popular trends are usually short, to the point and entertaining or shocking in some way or another. 

What was the first TikTok trend?

Since TikTok started out as Musical.ly, a music and dance app, it’s not surprising that most of the first viral trends on TikTok were in fact dance videos. One of the earliest TikTok trends was a dance called ‘The Renegade’ to a song by K-Camp called ‘Lottery’.

This type of trend became so popular and has stayed trending because users don’t need to be a professional to partake in these easy-to-learn and fun dances. 

How do you start a trend?

Unfortunately, there’s no sure-fire way to know whether something will trend or go viral on TikTok. A great place to start is using sounds or topics from pop culture. Many of the most viral trends have snippets from popular shows. If you’re not sure what sounds to use, we recommend trying as many as you want. The great thing about TikTok is that there isn’t the need to curate your feed the way there is on a platform like Instagram.

How long does a TikTok trend last?

Much like starting a trend on TikTok, it’s hard to predict how long a trend will last. While some trends can last weeks or even months, some are also only relevant for a couple of days. Many say the best way to know a TikTok trend has ‘expired’ is once you begin to see it popping up on other social media channels like Twitter or Instagram.