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Date: April 09, 2024

TikTok has reportedly been working on a new photo-sharing app that directly competes with Instagram and similar social media platforms.

TikTok has gained global popularity for its short-form videos posted in vertical format. The social media platform facilitates photo sharing but has never fully invested in improving its capabilities. Recent reports by independent reverse engineers and researchers have stated that TikTok is now building a separate app to facilitate sharing photos with text captions and that it looks similar to Instagram.

TechCrunch detected a new photo.tiktok.com URL in its archived version. The link was briefly functional and displayed a prompt to open a post in the TikTok Notes app. The website also gave a small glimpse of the platform’s interface. During a discussion with TechCrunch, TikTok said, “ We are exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats.”

Independent researchers like TheSpandroid found codes in the TikTok app that indicated the new app was in progress. Some users have shared screenshots of a pop-up box that they say appeared on their TikTok app screen. 

The app is now closer to the official launch phase, as it has made official statements confirming it is in development. TikTok will automatically export the photos shared with their captions to the new TikTok Notes app. Since last week, users have been getting random prompts from TikTok, and communication urges them to opt out now if needed. 

“As part of our continued commitment to innovating the TikTok experience, we’re exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats,” a TikTok spokesperson stated to the media.

Why is the company making a separate app for photo sharing and text captions? Is it planning to compete with Instagram and other similar brands? Meta acquired Instagram, which once was a direct competitor of its in-house app, Facebook. However, after the acquisition, the company kept both apps separate as they had unique user bases. TikTok is going the same route by providing a new app to facilitate the latest features of social media apps. 
 

By Arpit Dubey

Arpit is a dreamer, wanderer, and a tech nerd who loves to jot down tech musings and updates. With a logician mind, he is always chasing sunrises and tech advancements while secretly preparing for the robot uprising.