It seems like TikTok could also be near launching its new devoted picture app, which has been within the works for some time, and will now have a brand new, official identify.
As you’ll be able to see on this instance, posted by @cmcalgary, some customers at the moment are being knowledgeable that their nonetheless picture uploads on TikTok will quickly be viewable on “TikTok Notes” as properly.
As per the pop-up:
“TikTok Notes, a brand new app for picture posts, is coming quickly. Your current and future public TikTok picture posts shall be proven on TikTok Notes.”
So primarily, TikTok’s trying to launch a clone of what Instagram initially was, and populate it with all the nonetheless photos which have already been shared to its major app.
So it’s pulling an Uno reverse card on Meta, and replicating its options for a change, although whether or not TikTok customers will truly be curious about a separate nonetheless picture app stays to be seen.
As famous, TikTok has truly been experimenting with a photograph app for a while, with references to “TikTok Pictures” noticed within the back-end code of the app early final month. That’s now seemingly been up to date to “TikTok Notes” as a substitute, which is also one other potential dig at Instagram, which has its personal “Notes” characteristic, which now contains the capability to share several types of updates with chosen pals.
TikTok’s additionally been pushing customers to publish nonetheless photos within the app. It added a “picture mode” in 2022, enabling customers to share nonetheless photos in-stream, which it’s additionally been encouraging by way of pop-up alerts as properly.
The addition of a nonetheless picture app additionally aligns with Chinese language market developments, the place the Tencent-backed Xiaohongshu, primarily a neighborhood model of Instagram, has seen huge success, significantly after incorporating eCommerce options.
As such, it is sensible for TikTok to attempt it out, by utilizing the content material that it already has. However I stay skeptical that customers are going to need one other nonetheless picture app, and that TikTok will be capable of translate its short-form video success into one other platform.
However with a possible ban looming, possibly TikTok’s pulling out all of the stops, and attempting out its varied experiments whereas it may.
TikTok proprietor ByteDance has already launched its separate eCommerce platform Lemon8 in Western areas, which noticed a heap of early consideration, then misplaced traction a couple of months in. It additionally has TikTok Music, which has seen some success.
A separate picture app is one other potential pathway, and it does appear to be TikTok is pushing forward with it, at the least as an experiment.
We’ve requested TikTok for extra info, and we’ll replace this publish if/after we hear again.
