China: TikTok, a Chinese-owned video streaming app, has announced that it will offer text-only posts as competition between social media giants escalates. The social media platform noted that the new feature will give users “another way to express themselves.”
TikTok users will now be offered three options on the app, including whether to post photos, videos, or text. In addition, the users will be able to customise posts by adding sound, location, or Duets, which are video reactions to posts by other TikTok users.
“These features make it so your text posts are just as dynamic and interactive as any video or photo post,” TikTok stated.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, recently launched a new music streaming service, TikTok Music, in Brazil and Indonesia. Last week, the company also rolled out a beta version of the service in Singapore, Mexico, and Australia.
According to a spokesman, the platform would allow users to “listen, share, and download the music they have discovered on TikTok, as well as share their favourite tracks and artists with their TikTok community.”
The app is testing other features, including a new landscape mode, with select users around the world.
Competition between rival social media firms, such as Instagram owner Meta and X, Mr. Elon Musk’s rebranded Twitter platform, has escalated in recent weeks.
This month, Meta’s new Threads platform went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries, including the UK. Also this week, the blue bird branding on social network Twitter was replaced by a logo featuring a white X on a black background.