https://arab.news/z79e8
- Users able to create posts with colored backgrounds, stickers
- Some platform users compared new feature to Instagram
LONDON: TikTok has announced the introduction of text-based content, as social media platforms race to expand their offerings and capitalize on Twitter’s (now X) hiccups.
In a blog post, the app said its new format would allow users to create text-based content to share stories, ideas, poems, recipes, or other written content.
“With text posts, we’re expanding the boundaries of content creation for everyone on TikTok, giving the written creativity we’ve seen in comments, captions, and videos a dedicated space to shine.”
From Tuesday, Twitter users will be able to add colored backgrounds and stickers to the posts, which have a limit of 1,000 characters.
TikTok users will now see three different options for content creation: photo, video, and text, the company added.
“By selecting text, you'll be directed to the text creation page, where you can type out the content of your post.
“You’ll find familiar options to customize your content. These include adding Sound, tagging a location, enabling comments, and allowing Duets, among others. These features make it so your text posts are just as dynamic and interactive as any video or photo post,” TikTok said.
While some users compared the new feature to Instagram, others pointed out that big tech companies often copied each other.
The announcement came as competition among social media platforms intensified following the launch of Threads, a spin-off of Meta-owned Instagram.
Some experts have speculated that the new feature could be seen as a move to attract a fresh audience targeting users who were growing increasingly discontent with Twitter.
However, business and technology journalist Todd Spangler said: “The move is more about giving users a new option for sharing content, rather than representing a new challenge to Elon Musk’s Twitter.
“Unlike Twitter or Threads, on TikTok, text-based posts aren’t designed to facilitate a conversation,” he added.
TikTok is one of the world’s fastest-growing platforms, but in recent months, the Chinese-owned site has suffered numerous setbacks.
In the US and Europe, the social media company is under intense scrutiny for its practices around users’ data collection, an issue which led the state of Montana to ban the app.