“TikTok Notes,” a photograph and text-sharing platform by the Beijing-born social media company, appears to be their latest swipe at Instagram.
The app seems extremely just like Instagram’s platform and even has the identical name as one among Instagram’s features.
Some TikTok users have reported a pop-up when sharing photo posts that say their photos may also be shared on a “coming soon” platform called TikTok Notes — with an choice to opt out.
“Your photo posts might be shown on TikTok Notes,” the pop-up reportedly says, in keeping with a screenshot shared on Reddit.
“TikTok Notes, a latest app for photo posts, is coming soon! Your existing and future public TikTok photo posts might be shown on TikTok Notes,” the notification reads. “In the event you prefer not to indicate your public TikTok photo posts on TikTok Notes, turn this off now.”
The web site, notes.tiktok.com, is currently live, however the “Open App” button doesn’t work. Relatively the positioning offers a preview of Polaroid-esque photo posts with still photos and text within the open white space — very similar to Instagram.
“The copycat phenomenon runs rampant across social media platforms”, Mike Proulx, a research director at evaluation firm Forrester, told the BBC.
Proulx added that when these copycat features are done well, they “repay” — like when Instagram introduced the “Stories” feature to rival Snapchat.
But there’s no guarantee of success, he continued, giving the instance of Twitter’s failing “Fleets” story feature.
While no release date for the brand new app has been announced, nor has it finalized the design, TikTok confirmed to the BBC that it’s been working on a “dedicated space” for photos and text.
“As a 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,” an organization spokesperson told TechCrunch.
TechCrunch also reported that TikTok is experimenting with different formats as well, comparable to 30-minute videos like YouTube and text posts to rival X and Threads.
