One of the most widely used applications right now, TikTok, appears to be preparing to expand into a new social network market by developing a new app where the primary feature is images. In this sense, the fictitious software would immediately rival Instagram, reacting to Mark Zuckerberg’s app Reels, which was created to steal its user base by imitating its structure.
As discussed earlier, TikTok is attempting to play the same game as Instagram, aiming to disrupt Instagram’s dominance in the photo app market by releasing a similar app and attacking its market. The programming clues are leaving a very clear trail.
An app to rival Instagram:
This information, which was made public by TheSpandroid blog, suggests that TikTok intends to make a significant move into the Android photography market. And, it seems sense that a photo app from TikTok would first be wildly successful given that it is already a social network with extremely high engagement and active people overall.
The Chinese company has been watching for several years as other competitors attempt to imitate its formats: the previously mentioned Reels, which found their way to Facebook in addition to Instagram; YouTube Shorts, which imitate the same format to add a twist to this platform’s classic style; or even the attempt by X (Twitter) to create a similar format that would require an endless scroll when opening videos. But now, it appears that TikTok will move forward, according to this leak.
The battle to imitate the opponent:
For more than ten years, we have witnessed how different social media services perpetually imitate one another when they perceive that newly introduced features become well-liked. Actually, one of the best apps for duplicating formats is Instagram. For instance, Snapchat’s development was entirely halted when the “stories” style was introduced while the service was just getting started, and its bigger user base totally eclipsed it.
Nevertheless, Instagram is not the only app that has profited from imitating its competitors; Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are all part of the Meta ecosystem. In example, WhatsApp is renowned for progressively incorporating many of the enhancements that Telegram encountered and determined to be effective. It remains to be seen how far this experiment can go in terms of mimicking its competitor now that TikTok is involved.