Ah, TikTok. That massive short-form video app rocketed in popularity and quickly became one of the major social media apps alongside apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In fact, TikTok's short-form video content was so easy to get hooked on that short-form video features started to show up on other apps, such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
However, TikToki seems to want to show others — Instagram in particular — that there's no monopoly on being “inspired” by other apps' features. TikTok looks set to release a photo-sharing app called TikTok Photos.
Code In The New TikTok Update Points To An App Called TikTok Photos
If you use TikTok frequently, like I do, you must have noticed when the app allowed users to share photos and not just videos. You can even share tens of videos in a carousel similar to Instagram. That might have been the first sign that TikTok had bigger fish to fry beyond short-form content.
Thanks to an APK teardown done by the folks over at TheSpAndroid, we've been able to see that TikTok has intentions to release an Instagram clone called TikTok Photos. This was discovered through lines of code containing sentences like “Share to TikTok Photos”, “Your post has been shared to TikTok Photos”, and “Open TikTok Photos”. These lines of code point to text that will be visible in the app at some point.
One line of text actually gives us a little hint about when we can expect the app and a little more about its integration with the main application.
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.
So, we can see that the app will be launched “soon”, but there's no solid estimate on when we can expect it. I'd wager a guess that we might see it in the first half of this year though.
We've also gotten a glimpse at the logo for TikTok Photos, just in case you needed more convincing that it's a real thing in development.
Is It Possible To Go Head-To-Head With An Established Platform Like Instagram?
The real question is, if TikTok Photos is meant to be an Instagram competitor, does it have any chance of stealing some market share from the clear market leader?
That's going to be hard to predict, but TikTok is a massive app, especially among younger age groups. I don't expect it to usurp Instagram and become the primary photo-sharing application, but I do believe it'll do a good job at becoming an alternative (at least doing a better job than Instagram's Threads did at defeating X).
This will be the first step towards widening the TikTok social media ecosystem. The main TikTok app has stories, short-form (and long-form) videos, and a basic form of photo-sharing. I don't think we really need another standalone IG clone, but if TikTok wants to try, they're welcome to.
