Instagram has been changing into TikTok little by little for years now. From what I can tell, TikTok is about to do the opposite of what it did before.
“TikTok Photos,” which hasn’t been officially named yet, looks like a new app from ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that runs TikTok. It’s said to be an app for sharing photos, which is similar to what Instagram used to be before it turned into a bunch of A/B-tested addiction loops.
A writer named assembleDebug, who often decompiles and looks through the code of Android apps, found a reference to TikTok Photos. Other than that, not much is known about it.
A blog post on TheSPAndroid says that the TikTok app already has text that tells users how to set up a new app called “Tiktok Photos.” This text is expected to be pushed to users in the next few weeks. This is the text that I took from the latest version of TikTok for Android:
Soon, TikTok Photos will be out, and we hope that it will help you reach new people. We’ll sync your public photos to the new app whether you close the pop-up or not if the switch is on.
Recent Tweet related to this news:
TikTok appears to be planning to expand into photo sharing via the launch of a new "TikTok Photos" app. pic.twitter.com/gYYhXpwTOH
— Breaking News (@TheNewsTrending) March 13, 2024
Since this kind of text is already in the current version of TikTok, it means that ByteDance plans to release the photo app soon and will push TikTok users to download it. TikTok may be just trying out a new idea within the company. There’s no promise that this app will ever be released to the public. TheSPAndroid also found image files that are most likely the app’s logo, no matter what state the app is in.
To say the least, it would be interesting if TikTok released a new app at this time. Bills from both parties in the US Congress would require ByteDance, which is based in China, to “divest” from TikTok to keep doing business in the US. TikTok asked its users last week to help stop the US government from banning the app by calling their officials.
The app told users how to do this. Because of this, there were so many calls that it backfired: the calls made some lawmakers think that the app was too strong. After the protest, the bill was passed by the committee without a single objection.
I hope that there is an app that can do what Instagram used to do. There should be a place where I can look at pictures that my friends and family have posted that don’t have video ads playing in the background.
Because of how politics are right now and how TikTok has been in the past, I don’t think TikTok Photos will become that. I guess I’ll just keep hoping that soon there will be a new app that captures the spirit of early Instagram.
Recent News:
- Meta Quest 3 vs. Apple Vision Pro: Evaluating Zuckerberg Review
- Explore the Future of Chat: Discord’s Embedded App SDK
