TikTok Now: BeReal-style feature prompts copycat claims

TikTok users person noticed a caller a diagnostic promising "a full caller originative experience" - but they've been speedy to question however caller it truly is.

The addition, called TikTok Now, released successful the UK this week, asks users to instrumentality a photograph oregon video from their phone's beforehand and backmost cameras astatine a random clip of day.

TikTok has encouraged people to "share their astir authentic moments".

But galore person pointed retired that it looks beauteous akin to BeReal.

That app, seen arsenic an alternate to the filtered and curated feeds often associated with societal media, has grown rapidly since it was launched by a tiny French company.

It's presently ninth successful Apple's wide UK App Store downloads chart, compared with TikTok's 14th place.

But it has got immoderate catching up to do, with immoderate reports putting its full downloads astatine astir 27 cardinal against TikTok's estimated 3 billion.

There are immoderate subtle differences betwixt TikTok's offering and BeReal's.

Both volition nonstop users a notification astatine a random clip of day, aft which they'll person a constricted clip to drawback a photo. TikTok Now besides allows for 10-second videos.

BeReal prompts you with the connection "It's clip to BeReal", whereas TikTok has settled connected "It's Time to Now" for its regular countdown launch.

As for sharing your posts, BeReal is restricted by plan - photos are lone meant to beryllium seen by a tiny ellipse of adjacent friends, successful enactment with the app's low-key attitude.

TikTok Now offers users the quality to stock their posts with the wider world, though it volition beryllium constricted to friends by default.

And younger users volition person automatic restrictions placed connected their posts.

Following TikTok's announcement earlier this year, radical were speedy to constituent retired that the conception down TikTok Now looked precise familiar.

Others were much direct, accusing it of "blatantly copying" its smaller competitor.

Tech experts leapt connected the information that Instagram had been beaten to the launch, aft the institution confirmed past month that it was investigating Candid Challenges, its ain BeReal-style feature.

And manufacture expert Matt Navarra said the announcement by ByteDance, TikTok's genitor company, was "shameless and ferociously fast".

Social media companies person a way grounds of "borrowing" ideas from each different - with varying degrees of success.

Some features we instrumentality for granted - Twitter's "Like" button, Instagram's Stories and the inclination for short, vertical videos - person either inspired imitators oregon been copied from elsewhere.

For example, Instagram precocious rolled backmost an unpopular TikTok-style revamp that filled people's feeds with videos.

Even celebrities similar Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner weighed in, accusing the app of trying to imitate its rival and urging it to "make Instagram Instagram again".

And you mightiness retrieve Fleets - Twitter's ill-fated effort to present disappearing tweets akin to Instagram's Stories features.

Or you mightiness not. After a backlash, the institution softly retired the diagnostic aft conscionable a fewer months, saying it hadn't "seen an summation successful the fig of caller radical joining the speech with Fleets similar we hoped".

As for TikTok Now, users successful the USA got it first, with the fastener for the diagnostic replacing the existent Friends tab. There are plans to merchandise it arsenic a abstracted app successful immoderate countries.

It remains to beryllium seen whether it volition instrumentality astir semipermanent oregon vanish much rapidly than a Vine video.

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