TikTok began allowing creators to post text-only posts, adding new non-video features to the app that had made videos its hallmark.
Popular video-sharing app TikTok has announced a new feature aimed at giving creators a way to express themselves without posting videos or photos. From now on, users can simply post text messages, without attaching any other media.
New TikTok text messages are limited to 1,000 characters. Users can personalize their text messages by adding a sound (like song clips), tagging a location, hashtag, tag, allowing comments and duets, or adding a colored background.
Text messages replace videos on TikTok
Now when you open the Camera page of the app, you can choose between three options: photo, video and text. Once the text option is selected, you will be taken to the text creation page, where you can enter the content of your message. TikTok claims that text messages will be just as interactive and dynamic as video or photo messages.
As with videos or photos, you can also save your drafts and store them with other unpublished posts for later editing or delete them altogether.
With this new feature, one could therefore believe that TikTok wants to offer an alternative to those who want to flee X, the new name of Twitter. Platforms like Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon and many others are trying to position themselves as a viable replacement, but none have yet managed to make a name for themselves. If Threads managed to gather more than 100 million users in less than 4 days, only half of them remained the following week.
Unlike Twitter or Threads, on TikTok, text posts aren’t designed to facilitate a conversation. In effect, TikTok posts work more like Instagram posts, which followers can comment on, but the way they appear after the videos should drive less engagement than posts appearing in a traditional News Feed. Elon Musk’s social network should therefore not be greatly impacted by this new TikTok feature.
