TikTok is the social network of the moment. It managed to conquer the youngest (and not so young) audience and became synonymous with “short vertical video”. Regardless of platform, every short vertical video is a “tiktok.” Instagram, which is nothing but capable of taking inspiration from other social networks, launched its own alternative, Reels, four years ago, and now it is TikTok that has counterattacked Instagram with its own photo app: TikTok Notes.

Not official, not official. Although it is true that TikTok has not officially announced TikTok Notes, since it has not yet released a statement and is not available for download, the platform has started to inform users that it will arrive soon. It did this through a notification in the app whose message read:

Your photo posts will appear in TikTok Notes

TikTok Notes, a new photo publishing application, is coming soon! Your current and future public photo posts on TikTok will appear in TikTok Notes […].

When the sound of the river is heard… This is further evidence that TikTok is working on an Instagram rival. A month ago, some mentions of Tiktok Notes were discovered in the TikTok APK code, and recently the URL photos.tiktok.com was found, which invites you to open Tiktok Notes. It looks like we will be able to publish photos and add a description based on what is shown, but everything indicates that the visual will be the main protagonist. Little else is known for now beyond TikTok’s statement to TechCrunch, which doesn’t actually say anything:

“As part of our ongoing commitment to innovate the TikTok experience, we are exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a space dedicated to these formats.”

Photos? It may seem strange that TikTok relies on photos in the age of short vertical videos, but it is. In fact, it’s not uncommon for the app to occasionally invite you to upload photos and send you a message highlighting that photos have more views and engagement. Moreover, if one uses TikTok, there are bound to be challenges, questions, compilations, etc. This means that you have come across countless photo galleries containing This is a format that works very well on TikTok and will definitely get more visibility with the arrival of TikTok Notes.

TikTok starts with a head start. And it does this because by default all photos published on TikTok will be in TikTok Notes. There will already be content to consume that is not available on every newly created social network. The problem, of course, is that in the European Union there is a law called DMA; This law aims to protect privacy and creates some friction when moving products beyond our borders. TikTok has been set as a gatekeeper, and of course it won’t be that simple to transfer the photos, names, information and accounts that European users have already published to another app. Tell Threads.

A meaningful launch. TikTok and Instagram complement each other right now. At the user level, content on TikTok is uploaded and consumed for entertainment, whereas Instagram is more personal. TikTok is the fun we have with friends at the pool with meme sounds in the background; Instagram is the photo taken during a meal with your family or during a romantic dinner with your partner. TikTok tried to enter this space with its own stories, but the truth is that it was not as successful as on Instagram. So it makes perfect sense that TikTok would want to offer the more “personal and private” aspect that Instagram offers.

But the life cycle of social networks is always the same. There comes a time when new features are released not to attract more users but to maintain existing features. TikTok has made various moves to recruit users, from adding watermarks to all videos to paying to bring friends. Now is the time to continue improving yourself, and the launch of TikTok Notes will likely follow suit. Proof of this is the possibility of publishing long, horizontal videos designed to rival YouTube.

Undated. At least for now. We don’t know what dates TikTok has for the launch of Notes, but it doesn’t look like it will take much longer. It will be a matter of time.

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