It appears like TikTok could also be near launching its new dedicated photo app, which has been within the works for some time, and will now have a brand new, official identify.
As you may 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 nicely.
As per the pop-up:
“TikTok Notes, a new app for photo posts, is coming soon. Your existing and future public TikTok photo posts will be shown on TikTok Notes.”
So basically, TikTok’s seeking to launch a clone of what Instagram initially was, and populate it with all the nonetheless pictures which have already been shared to its predominant 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 really be concerned with a separate nonetheless picture app stays to be seen.
As famous, TikTok has really been experimenting with a photograph app for a while, with references to “TikTok Photos” noticed within the back-end code of the app early last month. That’s now seemingly been up to date to “TikTok Notes” as an alternative, which may be one other potential dig at Instagram, which has its personal “Notes” characteristic, which now contains the capability to share various kinds of updates with chosen pals.
TikTok’s additionally been pushing customers to submit nonetheless pictures within the app. It added a “photo mode” in 2022, enabling customers to share nonetheless pictures in-stream, which it’s additionally been encouraging via pop-up alerts as nicely.
The addition of a nonetheless picture app additionally aligns with Chinese language market tendencies, the place the Tencent-backed Xiaohongshu, basically a neighborhood model of Instagram, has seen massive success, significantly after incorporating eCommerce options.
As such, it is smart for TikTok to strive it out, through the use of 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 potential ban looming, possibly TikTok’s pulling out all of the stops, and attempting out its numerous experiments whereas it could actually.
TikTok proprietor ByteDance has already launched its separate eCommerce platform Lemon8 in Western areas, which noticed a heap of early consideration, then lost traction a few months in. It additionally has TikTok Music, which has seen some success.
A separate picture app is one other potential pathway, and it does look like TikTok is pushing forward with it, at the least as an experiment.
We’ve requested TikTok for extra data, and we’ll replace this submit if/after we hear again.
