In December, we released a full recap of 2025’s top growth moves, highlighting strategies from more than 100 apps.
It’s a less-than-one-hour read that could seriously shift your strategy and give you clarity for the year ahead.
To kick off the year, we’re sharing some of our favorite trends and predictions for 2026 — so you start strong and see a billion views on your Shortimize dashboard.
Charisma
No, bad acting was never in style. But with AI avatars starting to clutter the world of TikTok marketing, anyone with a strong on-camera presence is winning.
Technically, anyone can still make UGC, but since late 2025, we’ve seen a clear shift toward more talking-style videos.
The creators who speak directly to the camera, tell real stories, and give honest-feeling recommendations are the ones pulling the most views. More importantly, they’re your strongest bet for conversions.
Anything, a vibe-coding app, has nailed this winning format. One of their videos hit 1 million views just last month. It quite literally starts with the creator saying, “I’m not selling you a course, not trying to sell anything, just a girl making money online and teaching you how to do the same.”
Other apps, such as Turbo AI, are going down a similar path.
They’re known for trying out (and nailing) pretty much any format, but lately they’ve been focusing more on talking clips, where a student shares their personal story.
The videos are usually around a minute long and always include a visual hook to grab attention, most often the creator peeling some kind of fruit.
In one clip, she peels a sweet potato while talking about how she shifted from just memorizing things to actually understanding them. This video got 7.1 million views, 646,000 likes, and nearly 2,000 comments.
Here’s the thing. This type of content needs talented, engaging creators. Not everyone will be great at it, and the ones who are usually come with a higher price tag. But if you’ve got the budget and room to train them, it’ll almost always be worth it.
Text-Heavy Posts
On the flip side, there’s been a big rise in text-heavy posts, and that trend looks set to continue well into 2026.
You’ve probably seen those one-slide carousel posts everywhere—racking up millions of views and thousands of comments.
It all started on the organic side of TikTok, where people used them to spark debates, share recommendations, or talk about relatable moments.
Now, it’s moved into consumer marketing TikTok, with apps and e-com brands beginning to see the value and jump on board.
It’s gotten so popular that even anonymous accounts on X are pulling in millions of views using the same copy-and-paste style hooks.
One post, for example, hit 2.6 million views and almost 3,000 comments—and, mind you, that account only has around 5,000 followers.
Even other kinds of text-heavy posts have been blowing up lately.
This one’s a totally different style, but the mix of text layers—sound captions, chat messages, POV hooks, and on-screen text—makes it both messy and super engaging. It’s a real science. If it’s just a bit too cluttered, it can flop fast.
Even if you’re not sure how this drives conversions for your app or product, don’t underestimate the comments. Posts like this can be goldmines for customer insights. Seriously, it’s next-level research.
Human-made, AI-enhanced
We know everyone’s sick of hearing about AI-generated content, but hear us out.
AI-generated content, like AI avatars and “influencers,” is evolving at its own pace, but for now it’s still clearly limited when it comes to quality and credibility.
Then there’s AI-enabled content.
It’s the kind of content where you just know a real person made it, but it uses AI to push funny, dramatic, or even philosophical ideas into completely new territory.
Unsurprisingly, AI editing tools were the first to kick-off this opportunity, and since then, TikTok and Reels have been flooded by videos of AI pranks going viral time and time again.
8.9 million views in December for Halo AI:
19.9 million views in November for Yapper:
This year, we’re going to see way more of this kind of content, and not just pranks. Think about what meditation, health, productivity, fashion, or home design apps could do if they lock in high-engagement formats and use AI to make them even better.
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What do you think will be TikTok’s biggest marketing trend in 2026?
Don’t forget you can access the full report here.
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