In the battle for Gen-Z’s attention, the rivalry between TikTok and Instagram is about to become a lot more fierce.
Video content may have driven the app’s explosive growth, but TikTok is now reportedly preparing to launch its own photo-sharing app called TikTok Notes.
Some TikTok users have begun to see pop-up notifications revealing that their photos will be shown on a new app.
‘TikTok Notes, a new app for photo posts, is coming soon!’ the notification reads.
The Chinese-owned social media giant has not confirmed when TikTok Notes could be coming.
Video-sharing giant TikTok is reportedly preparing to launch a new app dedicated to sharing photos called TikTok Notes
Some TikTok users have begun to see pop-up notifications revealing that their photos will be shown on a new app
Although TikTok is better known for its video content, users can share photos and slideshows via the app.
Now, It appears that these photo posts will be shown on the new ‘TikTok Notes’.
The pop-up gives users the choice to opt out of having their posts automatically uploaded to the new app.
TikTok has confirmed that it is actively working on the app but that it has no plans at this time to make it broadly available.
‘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,’ TikTok told MailOnline.
Separately, a TikTok-owned URL briefly showed what appears to be placeholder marketing images with the text ‘Opening in TikTok Notes’.
This page, which MailOnline accessed through Internet Archive, gives us our first proper glimpse at what the photo-sharing app might look like.
The site shows three square photos, each with a caption beneath.
It is not yet clear how the new app will work but this does suggest that users will be able to post images with captions in a similar manner to Instagram.
A TikTok-owned URL briefly showed what appeared to be placeholder marketing material for the new app, showing that users might be able to post images with captions
These revelations come at a time when TikTok is coming into increasingly close competition with its Meta-owned competitor.
Last year, Instagram launched ‘Reels’, its own short-form video feature which almost perfectly replicated TikTok’s distinctive scrolling feed.
These efforts already appear to be paying off as Instagram overtook TikTok in new app downloads by the end of 2023.
Instagram’s total new downloads grew by 20 per cent in 2023, according to Sensor Tower data, reaching a total of 768 million.
TikTok meanwhile only increased its new downloads by four per cent over the same time, bringing the total up to 733 million.
This leaves Instagram with an estimated 1.47 billion monthly active users in 2023 while TikTok only reached 1.12 billion.
Instagram recently passed TikTok for monthly new downloads thanks to the ‘Reels’ video feature. TikTok notes could be a direct challenger for the photo-sharing platform
However, these new notifications suggest that TikTok could be getting close to launching a serious Instagram competitor.
Despite facing a possible US ban, TikTok is still used by a third of all American adults and 62 per cent of adults aged 18 to 29 according to Pew Research.
And, while Instagram might be bigger, TikTok commands more of its users’ time than any other platform.
The average TikTok user spends 95 minutes per day scrolling through videos while British children spend a whopping 127 minutes per day.
If TikTok can replicate its formula for success with a new picture-sharing app, Instagram might have much more competition for new users.
TikTok did not immediately respond to request for comment.
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
