As ByteDance faces a potential ban of their popular short form content app TikTok from the United States, the company is reportedly exploring a new “TikTok Photos” app that would create a rival to Instagram.
According to The SpAndroid, the back-end code of the current TikTok app exists new references to “TikTok Photos” within the code strings, which suggests that TikTok users could soon have the capability to share their photos within the new app to “reach like-minded people who enjoy photo posts.”
Additionally, the report shared a new welcome message for the app:
“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.”
China’s own version of Instagram is the Tencent-funded Xiaohongshu, so there certainly is steep competition for ByteDance within their own home country and adds to a deep competitive market for photo apps that is currently dominated by Instagram.
ByteDance certainly likes to test out new apps, and their launch of Lemon8, which was slightly similar to Instagram, hit the United States last year with a good amount of interest, but that has seemingly waned since.
