How to make a TikTok slideshow (in the app or from your own images)

How do you make a slideshow inside the TikTok app?

As of November 2026, TikTok's Creator Academy (opens in a new tab) describes the in-app route in a few taps. TikTok calls the result a photo post. Creators say slideshow, carousel or Photo Mode. This page sorts out the terms.

1. Tap Add Post (+), then Photo, then Upload.
2. Select the photos you want and tap Next.
3. Swipe through the photos in the editor. On any of them you can add a filter, text or stickers, or crop. You can also add a sound for the whole post.
4. Fill in the post details: the image cover, description, hashtags, tagged people, location, link and privacy. Then post.

Menu labels change between app versions and regions, so match these steps to what your screen shows. If a button has moved, TikTok's own help pages win over this list.

Two details are easy to miss. First, the Creator Academy advises writing a hook as the post title. Second, TikTok said in a May 2025 Newsroom post (opens in a new tab) that creators can add alt text to photo posts during upload or after publishing. Text drawn into a slide is normally not read aloud by screen readers unless the alt text repeats it (a general accessibility point, not a TikTok statement), so paste the slide text there.

What are the limits of a TikTok slideshow?

On captions, some third-party tools still show 2,200 characters. That was TikTok's figure when it announced Photo Mode in October 2022, per its Newsroom (opens in a new tab), and it is out of date for photo posts. On hashtags, Social Media Today reported (opens in a new tab) in August 2025 that some users saw an in-app notice of a five-hashtag limit. TikTok gave no explanation, so treat five as a report, not a rule.

Guides that list a minimum of two, three or four photos disagree with each other. Test your own app if it matters, and read how many photos a slideshow can have for the full picture.

Which route fits your goal?

You have three realistic routes. They differ in effort, not in what the viewer sees.

Which scheduler to pick is its own question, covered in schedulers for TikTok photo carousels.

How do you build a slideshow from images you designed yourself?

1. Pick one claim. A slideshow that makes one point is easier to write and easier to finish. "Watering plants by the calendar is the problem" is a claim. "Plant tips" is not.
2. Write the text before you design. Plan a hook slide, three to five content slides and a closing ask. Keep each slide to one idea; words per slide explains how much text fits.
3. Choose one ratio for every slide. TikTok gives no pixel size for photo posts. Many creators use 1080x1920, but that comes from community guidance, not from TikTok. The size guide goes into the trade-offs.
4. Export. Choose JPG if there is any chance a scheduler will handle the post. It is also the lighter file for a phone transfer.
5. Number the files. Name them 01, 02, 03 so the order survives the trip to your phone.
6. Upload through the same flow as above, check the order in the editor and set the cover.
7. Write the caption last. You have room for 4,000 characters, but put the point first. Caption ideas are on their own page.

Doing this by hand is fine for one post. For a series, a desktop tool can take over steps 2 to 4. In Fyslide you pick a design and give a topic, and the AI you connect writes the slide texts: up to ten slideshows from one topic in one job, six slides each by default. It exports PNG or JPG slides together with the caption, and you upload them yourself, because posting from Fyslide to TikTok is marked "Coming soon" and is not available yet. The walkthrough is in the topic to slideshow guide.

What does a finished slideshow look like?

Here is a six-slide example for a plant-care account, with a note on what each slide does.

Notice the shape: one claim, one rule, one reason, one action, one ask. You can swap the topic and keep the skeleton. Twelve fill-in templates show other skeletons, and hook patterns cover the first slide in depth.

How do music and pacing work?

TikTok allows one sound per post. The Creator Academy points to the Commercial Music Library and advises a commercially available or licensed sound, but that wording is written for brands and publishers, so check what applies to your account.

On pacing, the sources differ. The Creator Academy says viewers swipe through photo posts at their own pace. The 2022 Newsroom announcement said Photo Mode posts also display one slide after another automatically. No source gives a fixed timing, so keep each slide short enough to read in roughly 2 to 6 seconds (our planning assumption; the words per slide page gives a budget per slide role) and still worth a longer look.

What goes wrong on a first slideshow?

First attempts often stumble in the same few places, and none of them is about the tool.

• The hook is a topic, not a claim. "Plant care tips" gives no reason to swipe. "You are watering by the calendar" does.
• Text sits where the app's own interface can cover it. We found no pixel margins from TikTok for photo posts, and third-party guides disagree. Keep important text away from the edges and check the preview. The safe zone guide lays out what is known.
• Slides carry too much. If a slide needs more than about 6 seconds of reading, split it.
• Mixed ratios. One tall photo among square ones makes the post look unfinished.
• The images look soft. Often the export or the original file is the cause. The blurry slideshow guide walks through the checks.

Fix the first two before anything else. They are the most common and the cheapest to fix.

Checklist before you post

• The hook slide makes one claim and is readable at thumbnail size.
• Every slide uses the same ratio and the same text position.
• The order of the files is the order you want.
• The cover is the slide you chose, not the default.
• The caption is under 4,000 characters and its first line makes sense alone.
• Alt text repeats the slide text where it matters.
• The sound is one you may use on your account type.
• You looked at the post in preview on a real phone.

If something looks wrong after posting, the troubleshooting page and the guide to a blurry slideshow are the next stops.

Common questions