If Instagram stole TikTok's trick when it launched Reels, TikTok seems eager to return the favor. The company is developing a new app, TikTok Notes, that looks a lot like Meta's popular photo-sharing platform.
The company initially teased the idea earlier this month by sending users a notification titled "Your photo posts will appear on TikTok Notes." The alert explains that TikTok Notes is a new app for photo posting, so future public TikTok photo posts will appear on the company's new dedicated app. It gives users an option to opt out of TikTok Notes if they prefer to keep their photo posts on TikTok.
The company officially announced TikTok Notes, an app for sharing photos and text, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. TikTok is initially only testing TikTok Notes in Australia and Canada, so those of us outside the country won't be able to try it out yet, but this article does give us some insight into how the app works.
Tweet may have been deleted
According to the four screenshots provided, TikTok Notes will have a For You page, just like TikTok, but likely more in line with Instagram's Explore page. This "Recommended for You" page displays multiple photo posts from users on the platform at once, but it appears you can click on the "Following" tab to view posts from people you particularly follow if you wish.
As you might expect, the posts themselves are a mix of TikTok and Instagram posts. You can upload multiple photos at once and attach captions. At the bottom you'll find comments, as well as space to leave your own thoughts. From here, there are the usual Like, Save, and Comment buttons, as well as the number of Likes, Saves, and Comments the user has left.
Who would use this?
Will this catch on? I honestly don't know. Sure, TikTok is hugely popular, but Instagram has little competition in the photo-sharing space. While TikTok has a large and loyal following, I wonder if they will feel the need to move to a new app, especially if they also have an established presence on Instagram for their photo sharing needs.
What I'm most curious about, however, is if they launch an app in the US now with extremely limited testing, but once they start rolling the app out to more countries, will that bother the apps that are actively trying to ban it? First is its product? Still, the U.S. is Meta's home turf, so TikTok (and ByteDance) might be worth waging a fight, however short-lived it might be.
