A prayer app uses TikTok to find its flock

Religious content has long been a mainstay on social media, where Christian influencers can rack up millions of views. And much of the online response to Hallow’s TikTok ads has been positive. Still, Alex Jonesthe CEO of Hallow, said he was aware that some people were surprised when they came across the company’s advertisements on social media.

“We are not conducting sophisticated or specific targeting,” wrote Mr. Jones, who should not be confused with the conspiracy theorist of the same name who ran the Infowars website. “Each platform has its own algorithm to determine its feed. We know there are some comments from people who are surprised to see these posts in their feed. We certainly don’t want to force anything on anyone.”

Jessi Hood, a library circulation coordinator in Roanoke, Virginia, who does not consider herself religious, was another person who came across Mr. Wahlberg and Hallow on her For You page on TikTok. ‘Half the time I roll my eyes when I see him,” Ms. Hood, 24, said, noting the actor’s criminal past. (At age 16, Mr. Wahlberg was convicted of assaulting a Vietnamese man and served 45 days in prison.)

Mrs. Hood downloaded Hallow out of curiosity. “My first thought was: Oh, that’s weird. This is a prayer app, and you have to pay for it?” she said. She posted a few screenshots of Hallow on X and then deleted them from her phone.

In his email, Mr. Jones, Hallow’s director, provided anonymous quotes from alleged Hallow users raving about the platform. For others who find Hallow ads on social media, there is less interest: “I opened TikTok to a video of Mark Wahlberg asking me to pray with him… and I can’t really think of anything I want to do less,” Brandi Howard, 32, posted on X.

But since Mr. Schneider visited the Hallow website and Ms. Hood downloaded the app (only to delete it), the TikTok campaign appears to have piqued curiosity.