After weeks of Instagram and Twitter copying TikTok’s features, the video-first app is now giving them a taste of their own medicine.
TikTok is rolling out a new photo mode, letting users upload photos in a separate format to videos.
“For when you’d prefer to express yourself in formats other than video, we released Photo Mode, a new carousel format available on mobile for photo content that’s ideal for sharing high-quality images on TikTok,” a blog post from TikTok reads.
“Photo Mode allows you to share carousel posts of still images that automatically display one after another. You can add music to soundtrack the images, which viewers can swipe through at their own pace.”
Previously, yes, you could upload photos to TikTok, but now the app will have optimisation for photo-based posts with side-swiping for multiple images. You know, like Instagram (before Instagram wanted to be TikTok). This is getting exhausting.
The feature copying doesn’t stop with Instagram, as TikTok is also ripping off Twitter.
TikTok previously had a 300-character limit, just over Twitter’s character limit of 280 characters, but now, the app is giving creators more words to work with.
“You can now pair your videos and content made in Photo Mode with longer descriptions, up to 2,200 characters for each post,” the blog post added.
“With the extra space, we’re hopeful creators will have some extra room to build on the stories they’ve shared in videos or Photo Mode, giving them another space to express themselves and more deeply connect with others.”
Yeah, it’s a lot more characters than a standard tweet, but text on TikTok is, conceptually, an extension of its visuals-first content approach.
TikTok’s update to character limits is an interesting inversion of Twitter’s text-first approach. The idea is that, with more text to read, users will stay on a single post longer before swiping on to the next.
Not to mention, Twitter is rolling out a long-form tweet format called notes with 2,500 words (roughly 12,500 characters).
Additionally, TikTok is updating its clip editing, trimming, text and splitting tools and is adding the ability to set the duration of sounds (while also adding sound effects).
The blog post says it’s rolling out to the U.S. and most regions globally today.