What a shame! First it was Instagram with the “Candid Challenge” feature to allow users to share their unfiltered photos with their friends, and now TikTok, launching “TikTok Now”, a feature that’s a blatant clone of the viral BeReal photo-sharing app.
Branded as “TikTok Now,” the company says that this feature “brings the authenticity of TikTok to a whole new creative experience that connects you with those closest to you.” Users will be prompted via a notification to share a selfie, using the front and back camera, at a random time each day – exactly the same function as the BeReal platform.
In case you don’t know or haven’t tried BeReal, it is one of the newest social apps out there. It sends every user a push notification at the same time and snaps two pictures: one using the rear-facing camera and one using the selfie camera. There’s a two-minute countdown timer and if you post outside that window, your BeReal post will say that you posted “late.”
The new TikTok Now feature… works almost exactly the same way. Once a day, you’ll receive a “Time to Now” notification that prompts you to “capture a 10-second video or a static photo to easily share what you’re up to.” If you post within three minutes of the notification being sent, your post will say that you were “on time.” Otherwise, it will say that you posted late.
From the above images, you can see the new feature has its own dedicated tab right next to the home button at the bottom of the app. For users under the age of 16 registering for TikTok Now, their account visibility will be set to private by default.
Regarding sharing, users above 18 can limit their candid TikTok Now photos and videos to only close friends or choose to share them with a broader audience. TikTok also adds that people that aren’t mutual followers, irrespective of the account owner’s age, won’t be able to comment on the post.
The company says it’s experimenting with the feature over the coming weeks. In the US, TikTok Now will be available in the main app. In other regions of the world, TikTok Now may become a separate app.
Originality is a dead language, at least in the world of social media apps. TikTok’s held up as the most popular app for its curated, AI-based content feed, but it’s realized there is a growing market of young people who are tired of scrolling through celebrities’ incoherent buzzing and algorithm-based feeds. Unfortunately, instead of creating something new, its opted to straight up steal another company’s idea for use in its own app.
