The Disappearing Pin Icon: Visual Proof of Tiktok’s Interface Change and Creator Workarounds
By Alexander Ross
For years, anchoring a remark was simple. A creator pressed down on any response beneath their video, opened the long-press comment menu, and selected the small thumbtack icon. The designated note immediately locked itself directly under the original caption, marked with a distinctive grey "Pinned by creator" label.
That interaction model eroded quietly. Following app version 28.0 and accelerating through builds in 2024 and 2025, millions of accounts found that long-pressing a comment revealed only basic options: "Reply with video," "Report," "Translate," and "Copy." The thumbtack vanished. Initially dismissed by users as a pinned comment disappearing glitch tied to local server latency, the consistency of the absence across both iOS and Android builds confirmed an intentional product realignment.
ByteDance rolled out these interface revisions in phased cohorts. While selected business profiles and grandfathered accounts in specific geographical testing zones retained the legacy action longer than average users, standard accounts saw the tool disappear entirely from their standard toolkit.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
