Alright, so let me tell you about this little project I tackled: getting TikTok to scroll by itself. You know how it is, you’re chilling, maybe eating, and you just want the videos to keep coming without having to swipe every few seconds. My thumb was getting tired, seriously.
Why I Even Bothered
I just thought, there has to be a way, right? We’ve got all this tech, phones are smart, surely making it swipe up automatically isn’t rocket science. I spend way too much time on TikTok, and the constant need to interact when I just want to passively watch was getting on my nerves. It’s like, I’m trying to relax here, not train for a swiping marathon.
My First Goofball Ideas
First thing, I poked around my phone’s accessibility settings. You know, those features for people who might need help using their phone. I figured, maybe there’s something in there like ‘auto-click’ or ‘auto-swipe’. Found some stuff, like switch control, but man, it was clunky. Setting it up was a pain, and it wasn’t really smooth for just watching videos. It felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Plus, sometimes it would just stop, or I’d accidentally trigger something else. Not the chill vibe I was going for.
Getting A Bit More ‘Technical’ (Not Really)
So, after fumbling with the built-in stuff, I thought, “Okay, what about those automation apps?” There are a few out there that let you record taps and swipes, or even create little scripts. I’d used one ages ago for something else, so I dug it up again. My grand plan was simple: record a swipe-up gesture, then tell it to repeat that gesture every, say, 10 seconds. Sounds easy, right?
The first few attempts were a bit of a laugh.
- I made it swipe too fast, so it would skip like three videos at once.
- Then I made it wait too long, and I’d be staring at a finished video for ages.
- One time, I somehow recorded a diagonal swipe, and it kept trying to go to the profile page or something. Total mess.
It was a lot of trial and error. Finding that sweet spot for the delay between swipes was key. Some videos are short, some are long. I couldn’t make it perfect for every single video, obviously. I settled on a delay that felt about right for the average video length I usually watch.
The Actual ‘Process’ I Settled On
So, what I did was open up one of those macro or task automation tools. Most of them have a way to simulate touch input.
I basically set up a super simple routine:
1. Simulate a swipe up. You usually define a start point and an end point for the swipe. I just picked a spot in the middle of the screen and swiped up a decent amount, like how you’d normally do it.
2. Wait. This was the tricky part to get right. I started with like 8 seconds, then tried 15, then went down to 10. It really depends on the content you watch. I found something around 10-12 seconds worked okay for me most of the time.
3. Loop it. Just told the app to repeat those two steps over and over again until I stopped it.
It’s not super sophisticated, you know? No fancy AI detecting when a video ends. It just blindly swipes every X seconds. But honestly, for just passively watching while I’m doing something else, like cooking or eating, it’s good enough. Sometimes it cuts off the end of a video, sometimes it waits a bit too long on one that’s finished. But my thumb gets a rest, and that was the main goal.
So, Was It Worth It?
Absolutely. It’s a bit janky, sure. It’s not a polished, store-bought solution. But for something I cobbled together in like, half an hour of fiddling, it does the job. Now I can prop my phone up, let the auto-scroller do its thing, and just enjoy the endless stream of videos hands-free. It’s kind of a lazy solution for a lazy problem, but hey, I’m all for making things easier. Plus, it felt kinda cool to figure out a little hack like that, even if it’s super basic. Makes me feel like a tech wizard, even though it’s probably child’s play for actual coders. But whatever, it works for me!
