The social media behemoth TikTok is under pressure on several fronts. First, the US Congress will vote on a bill this week that could lead to a nationwide ban on the app. Secondly, established players like YouTube, with its Shorts feature, and Instagram, with Reels, are vying for TikTok’s supremacy in short-form video content. Unexpectedly, data points to TikTok perhaps retaliating shortly with a brand-new app.
There’s evidence that a new TikTok Photos app exists
On his blog, TheSpAndroid, code sleuth AssembleDebug—who often keeps an eye out for hidden flags in Google applications that hint at forthcoming features—announced that many strings in the most recent TikTok APK (version 33.8.4) hint to the imminent release of a new social media app named TikTok Photos. The strings indicate that the new app will work with the current app and also promote it.
“Reach other like-minded people who enjoy photo posts,” according to one string, seems to suggest that you will be able to rapidly share a download link for TikTok Photos from the current app. It seems that you may be able to cross-post still photos from the main TikTok platform to the new TikTok Photos app. Another set of options, “Share photo posts to TikTok Photos” and “Sync Your posts to TikTok Photos,” makes this suggestion.
The last line may be the most intriguing because it says, “TikTok Photos will be launched soon,” and that if you have a certain option enabled, public images you publish to TikTok will sync to the new app.
Concurrently, AssembleDebug managed to unearth many variations of the TikTok Photos app’s home screen icon. While the color scheme is the same as that of the main TikTok app, the music note logo has been replaced with a stylized “P” that has what seems to be a picture print wrapped around its leading edge.
Although the TikTok app currently allows users to post images, the UX might need some improvement since photos and videos are combined in your feed. Having a separate app for still photography might help increase the popularity of this feature on the platform and puts TikTok squarely in opposition to Instagram, which it probably perceives as its main rival.
