TikTok’s Reportedly Testing a New Instagram-Like Photos App
Social Media Today
11 Mar 2024
TikTok could be eyeing a new way to take on Instagram, with a new “TikTok Photos” app reportedly in development.
As reported by The SpAndroid, in the back-end code of the current TikTok app, some new references to “TikTok Photos” have appeared within the code strings.
The code appears to suggest that TikTok users will soon be prompted to share their still images to the new app, in order to “reach like-minded people who enjoy photo posts.”
There’s also, apparently, a new welcome message for the app:
“TikTok Photos will be launched soon, we hope to help you gain new audiences in the new app. If the switch is on, we’ll sync your public photos to the new app, whether you close the pop-up or not.”
The addition of a separate TikTok Photos app is not overly surprising, given that TikTok has already added a “photo mode” for still images in-stream, and has been encouraging users to post more photos of late.
It also makes sense in the context of Chinese app trends.
China’s own version of Instagram is the Tencent-backed Xiaohongshu, which has seen big success of late after incorporating eCommerce features.
