After weeks of leaked screenshots and cryptic clues from executives, TikTok Notes is now available on iPhone and Android in select countries ...and unfortunately, UK users are amongst those missing out for now.
TikTok has yet to comment publicly on why its new Notes app is available in some countries, but not others.
The all-new app will compete directly with Instagram by offering a dedicated space to post and share photographs. Unlike Instagram, TikTok Notes’ feed takes the form of a grid that lets you see multiple posts at the same time. Tapping any of these pictures will load a fullscreen view, where you can read or post comments.
"TikTok Notes is a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo-text content about people's lives, where you can see individuals sharing their travel tips and daily recipes," the company describes the new social network in a listing in the Apple App Store for iPhone owners
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TikTok Notes will let you show appreciation for a post with a "Heart", similar to Instagram and equivalent to "Likes" available on Facebook. Bookmarks will allow you to save a post to revisit later on, something that's also possible with the short video clips that helped TikTok gain popularity globally.
The similarities don't end there, with TikTok Notes offering the ability to share multiple photos in a single carousel-like post, a choice between chronological or algorithmic sorting of the feed, and more.
In the brief description of its new app, TikTok parent company ByteDance writes: "TikTok Notes is a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo-text content about people's lives, where you can see individuals sharing their travel tips, daily recipes..."
TikTok Notes is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. If you already have a TikTok account, you'll be able to sign-in using the same username and password.
If you've shared photographs within the primary TikTok app, these will be duplicated inside TikTok Notes. It's possible to change this cross-platform sharing by digging into the settings of your account.
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The blockbuster success of TikTok has forced competitors like Instagram, which is owned by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, and YouTube, which is owned by the same parent company as Google, to shift focus to shorter video clips, launching competitors Reels and YouTube Shorts respectively to avoid shedding users.
But with the arrival of TikTok Notes, it seems the worldwide phenomenon is now looking to take on Instagram on its home-turf. Instagram, with its trademark feed of photos and ephemeral Instagram Stories posts, boasts an impressive 2 billion monthly active users.
Meta recently revealed that it earned $32.4 billion in advertising revenue from Instagram in 2021 alone — that's more than YouTube, which pulled in $28.8 billion that same year.
As fast as Meta attempts to promote features like Instagram Reels to ward off competition from TikTok, it seems the video-focused app is now trying to carve out a portion of that eye-watering $32.4 billion sum with its own alternative, TikTok Notes.
Profits at TikTok owner ByteDance jumped roughly 60% in 2023, Bloomberg News reported this month, citing people familiar with the matter. The company's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose to more than $40 billion last year, from about $25 billion in 2022, the report said.
TikTok only launched in late 2017, but has come to dominate the short-form video market. It boasts over 1.5 billion users worldwide, including a huge proportion of younger users — some estimates suggest 47.4% of TikTok users are under 30 years-old — a critical demographic for advertisers.
As we’ve seen with the recent success of BeReal, it’s still possible for new social media services to challenge long-established players like Instagram and Facebook. TikTok Notes has the advantage of being advertised to a vast userbase of hundreds of millions of people who already love TikTok.
The app faces a number of regulatory hurdles in the United States, with lawmakers in Washington DC moving to block the social app completely unless it's sold to a US company.
