When you open the Musical.ly app, it defaults to a feed of featured videos.
These are often the coolest, most liked videos of the day. The Featured feed is also a good place to find inspiration.
Users, or "musers," include the hashtag #featureme in their posts in order to be discovered by the app's curators.
You can switch to the My City tab for videos by musers near you.
I didn't love the My City feed, as most musers in my area look barely old enough to stay home alone. It felt creepy watching them mug for the camera in their bedrooms.
The Follow tab shows you videos from the musers you follow.
A majority of teens I talked to said they prefer the Follow tab to Featured and My City. That way, they can easily see what content comes from their friends, as opposed to randoms on the internet.
Being 10 years older than most musers, I don't have many friends on the app, so I mostly follow mainstream celebrities like Selena Gomez, Jason Derulo, and Ariana Grande.
Here's what a typical Musical.ly video looks like.
Identical twins Lisa and Lena, from Germany, have racked up more than 3.7 million followers on Musical.ly and run one of the fastest growing Instagram accounts.
The 13-year-olds joined Musical.ly in December, and their videos have since soared in production quality, thanks to lighting, choreography, and matching outfits from their own clothing line.
More and more teens are uploading comedy skits, like this dub of Drake's song, "Child's Play."
Though a majority of videos feature lip-syncing, you're really only limited by your imagination.
Every Musical.ly video displays the muser's username, a caption, and the name of the song and artist.
The caption is often packed with hashtags.
Just as hashtags trend on Twitter, "challenges" go viral on Musical.ly. Users upload videos of themselves performing a task, like dabbing for the #DabChallenge, and include the appropriate hashtag.
You can tap the hashtag to see more.
You can also see how popular the video is.
Hearts are the "Likes" of Musical.ly. (How could you not love a dancing cat named Oreo?)
Comments allow users to leave messages on others' videos.
And if you like what you see, you can click Profile to watch more content by the user.
Your profile is a space to personalize your account.
Users write a little bio and upload a photo to complete their Profile.
The crown next to Lisa and Lena's pic indicates that they are a top performer on the app.
Fans can subscribe to Notifications to receive an alarm whenever their favorite users post a new video.
Ready to get started? Click the yellow plus-button.
Don't be intimidated.
All the kids are doing it.
You can shoot a video and upload it to the app or start from scratch.
If you want to create a compilation video of your footage from a family vacation, your best bet is to upload videos from your phone's library.
Since I was prepared to shoot and publish in a one-two punch, I opted to "pick music" and record, rather than use my phone's native camera app.
Musical.ly hosts an online library of the top hits to choose from.
Songs are sorted by genre and theme, such as hip-hop, comedy, movie dialogue, and chart-toppers. Each clip lasts about 15 to 30 seconds.
You can also select from your phone's music library.
The advantage to using music from your own library is that you can pick the exact 15-second excerpt you'd like to dub. If you pick from Musical.ly's library, you're limited to the excerpt they make available.
I found one of the few jams I know the words to: R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)."
I didn't imagine many teens would know the song, as it played at my middle school dances. However, R. Kelly's hit was filed under "lip-sync classic."
Tap the song to see other users who lip-synced over it.
Teens I talked to said they enjoy this feature because it helps them brainstorm choreography for their videos.
They will sometimes copy a celebrity's performance move-for-move, giving credit in the caption.
I turned to Google Play Music for a quick refresher on the lyrics.
"So baby give me that toot toot."
"Let me give you that beep beep."
Got it.
In shooting mode, you have a number of tools at your fingertips to help you capture the moment.
Using the Scroll to trim music feature, I could sample the song at different starting points.
Most users hit Reverse camera to use the selfie-facing lens. I did the same.
If you prefer to step back and show both hands in the frame, you can press Timer and the camera will start capturing video five seconds later.
In a dark room? Hit Flash..
To record, hold down the pink button with the camera icon.
Don't overthink it. Just shoot.
Most teens I spoke with said that, rather than rehearse in the mirror, they will just shoot the video over and over until they get it right. Practice makes perfect.
It took me four takes performing R. Kelly's "Igniton (Remix)" before I was satisfied.
You're almost ready to publish!
Like Instagram, Musical.ly provides post-production editing tools to help your video look its best.
Filters alter the color, contrast, and saturation of your videos to create a certain mood.
If you want to play your video in reverse (while the music plays normally), Time machine lets you fuss with the playback.
Don't forget to write a caption. Including popular hashtags can help you earn hearts.
Once you click to post, Musical.ly prompts you to share the video with your friends on other social networking apps.
Teens told me they often share their videos to Instagram to get more eyes on their content. I did the same.
Unfortunately, your caption and the credit given to the artist don't automatically transfer to Instagram.
Musical.ly displays this message reminding users to credit the song and artist in their Instagram posts. Hopefully they will roll out a bettersolution soon.
If you passed on the first chance, you can add a filter via Instagram.
Instagram's filter game dominates that of Musical.ly. Their filters have more variety and can be customized for a more muted appearance.
The app also lets you select a cover image for your post that Instagram users will see when they scroll past it.
