TikTok, the wildly popular short-form video platform, appears to be testing a whole host of new features that seem to take a few cues from Instagram.
The tests were spotted by Jane Manchun Wong and reported by TechCrunch this week. According to screenshots shared by Wong to Twitter, TikTok is toying with an in-app “Discover” tab as well as a grid-like feed layout that would function similarly to the Explore feed on Instagram by surfacing user-specific related content.
TikTok is working on grid feed layout.
It works like Instagram’s Explore feed pic.twitter.com/gnhaRyiSx2
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) July 18, 2019
The app is apparently also testing other features such as account-linking for Facebook and Google, the ability to send videos to specific WhatsApp friends, as well as an account-switch function to allow users to more easily toggle between multiple profiles, Wong tweeted. Instagram currently allows users to switch between up to five individual accounts.
TikTok is testing Account Switcher pic.twitter.com/8F7YIeKCr7
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) July 18, 2019
Among the most interesting features that TikTok appears to be testing, however, are those that veer away from more recent changes that Instagram is testing itself. According to Wong, TikTok is exploring a “liked by creator” tag on comments, a feature to display download numbers on videos, as well as a feature to display the number of likes on content from the Sound and Hashtag page.
TikTok is testing to SHOW like counts on each video on Sound and Hashtag page
It’s like the opposite of Instagram lol pic.twitter.com/6LWrEXgj2y
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) July 18, 2019
This is, as Wong noted on Twitter, notably different from the direction Instagram has decided to take its platform as of late. In a change that Wong initially spotted back in April, Instagram announced this week that it would begin hiding likes and video views for some users in select countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand.
In a tweet thread on Thursday, the company said it wanted its users’ connections on Instagram “to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get”. The company added that it was “looking forward to learning more about how this change might benefit everyone’s experience on Instagram”.
TikTok did not immediately return a request for comment about the apparent tests, but a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch in a statement that it is “always experimenting with new ways to improve the app experience for our community”.
One platform’s likes loss is another’s gain, I suppose?