TikTok appears to be readying its long-rumored competitor to Instagram, an app focused on photo and text sharing rather than short videos. And according to screenshots circulating amongst users, it looks like the new app will be called “TikTok Notes.”
Over the past few days, some TikTok users have been seeing pop-up notifications about a forthcoming “new app for photo posts” from the company called “TikTok Notes.” The notifications state that any photo posts users have already shared on TikTok itself will get migrated over to this new dedicated app for images.
Users are being given the option to prevent their existing TikTok photo posts from being carried over to TikTok Notes if they so choose. But the notifications make it clear – TikTok is preparing to unbundle its photo/text sharing capabilities into a separate experience.
TikTok confirmed that it is indeed developing a new app focused on photos and text, separate from its core video-sharing app. However, the company stopped short of confirming the “TikTok Notes” branding.
“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 said.
While TikTok itself hasn’t officially used the “TikTok Notes” name, there are some other signs pointing to that being the chosen branding. A website URL owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance – photo.tiktok.com (here’s the archive version) – shows a placeholder image mentioning “Opening in TikTok Notes.”
Earlier this year, code explorers also found references to a “TikTok Photos” app buried in TikTok’s Android app package. But the recent pop-ups using the “TikTok Notes” phrasing suggest the company may have adjusted the name.
TikTok’s move to create a dedicated photo/text sharing app puts it in more direct competition with Instagram, which has long been the dominant platform for that use case. Both companies are owned by tech giants – TikTok by ByteDance and Instagram by Meta – who are battling fiercely for users’ attention and time spent in their respective apps.
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