The accompanying music video, which was directed by Jonathan Lia and Mars, depicts the latter reciting the song's lyrics and combines choreography with black-and-white animation.

Following the release of the successful Mark Ronson's single, "Uptown Funk" (2014) featuring Mars, the latter headed to the studio to record more songs.

[2][6] At this point, Mars had already shown the Stereotypes two songs, including a fully written and produced demo of "That's What I Like" that sounded like a ballad, according to Ray Romulus.

He said the album was intended to make people feel fabulous: "I'm talking about eating shrimp scampi and lobster tails and drinking strawberry champagne".

[12] "That's What I Like" was written by Mars, Philip Lawrence, Christopher Brody Brown, Fauntleroy, Yip, Romulus, Jeremy Reeves, and Ray McCullough II.

It was produced by Mars, Lawrence and Brown under the alias Shampoo Press & Curl; and co-produced by Yip, McCullough, Romulus, and Reeves as the Stereotypes.

At Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California, Charles Moniz recorded and engineered the track with assistance from Jacob Dennis.

[24] The song features Mars in the center of the track, supported by enthusiastic backing vocals, Boyz II Men-style finger-snaps, a "silky pre-chorus", and "punctuating ad libs".

[22] Christopher Weingarten of Rolling Stone wrote that the track "brings the silky vibes" of R. Kelly's 12 Play (1993) "into the boom of modern trap".

[29] Chris Molanphy from Slate defined "That's What I Like" as a mix of the "80s-into-90s styles like New Edition pop-and-B and New Jack Swing" infused with "the skittering, thumping 808 drums of a modern trap" song.

[32] The lyrics of the song have been described as "playful" and "opulent"; they were written from the point of view of someone "who loves himself" and luxury ("strawberry champagne and ice bucket") as much as his lover, with her being promised everything she wants, being allowed to "dictate the pace of the night".

[22][36] Vulture's Jenkins said the track is one of the best on the album and sonically one of the "most modern" songs due to "a killer vocal and tasteful trap drums".

[27] The Independent's Andy Gill and Patrick Ryan from USA Today both found the lyrics on "That's What I Like" to exhibit a list of "unimaginative" and "obnoxious" hedonism.

"[41] It was the 34th among Billboard's 100 Best Songs of 2017: Critics' Picks list; Ross Scarano wrote that Mars "is a pop star of total hospitality" showing several clichés of a luxurious life, such as "sex in front of the fireplace and champagne with strawberries", "waking up inside clean sheets without any clothes on", and "the private chef, Julio, preparing shrimp scampi for dinner".

[30] After the release of several remixes, featuring artists such as Gucci Mane and PartyNextDoor, "That's What I Like" climbed to number one in its fifteenth week on the chart, replacing Kendrick Lamar's "Humble" (2017).

[66][67] On the Radio Songs chart, "That's What I Like" peaked at number one and spent nine weeks there, becoming Mars's longest run at the top as a solo artist.

[77] On the Canadian Hot 100, the song peaked at number three on April 17, 2017, spending 38 weeks on the chart, and it was certified seven-times Platinum by the Music Canada (MC).

[80] "That's What I Like" peaked at number 12 on the UK singles chart and was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting sales and streams equivalent to 1,200,000 copies.

[88] The song ranked at the fifth spot on the 2017 Year-End List and received a seven-time platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RMNZ), denoting sales and streams equivalent to 60,000 copies.

[97] The choreography was done by the singer and Phil Tayag prior to the shooting, allowing Lia and Mars to produce animations before filming the video.

Several hand-drawn animations "relating to the lyrics" appeared and vanished off-frame; to create this effect, Lia filmed Mars while the song was played at half-speed.

Mars and Lia had a different concept for the music video, but the result was not what they expected when the two carried out a test shoot, and they decided to use a single light.

[101] Critics including Althea Legaspi from Rolling Stone and Minou Clark of HuffPost complimented Mars's dancing skills and choreography.

[43][97][99] Mike Wass, writing for Idolator, and Vulture's Karen Brill compared the video to Drake's "Hotline Bling" (2015) due to its simplicity and "unadulterated feeling-yourself-ness".

Wass and the staff of Rap-Up called Mars's footwork "fancy", while Brill said the visual is "wondrous" but that it should include "the ubiquitous music video cube".

[103][104][105] Vibe's J'na Jefferson shared a similar perspective, saying "the magic of this video is in the simplicity" because of Mars's performance skills, visual effects, and editing.

[111] Mars danced in synchronization with his backup singers, and towards the end of the song he made a "doo-wop harmonizing" breakdown while interacting with women in the crowd and using his falsetto vocals.

News wrote that Mars showed his "smooth dance moves and silky vocals", and that "every lady in the crowd looked as they were putty in Bruno's hand".

[115] At the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards, he performed the song as part of a medley with the single "Treasure", a track on Mars's second studio album Unorthodox Jukebox (2012).

[116] An acoustic version of the single was performed on the Charlie Rose Show; it featured Mars and some of his bandmates sitting at a table and using it as a soft drum set.