Instagram has been slowly turning into TikTok for years. TikTok, it seems, is about to do the same thing in reverse.
"Tiktok Photos," which still has yet to be officially announced, looks to be an upcoming app from ByteDance, the Chinese technology company that owns TikTok. It will reportedly be an app dedicated to sharing photos, which is notably what Instagram was before that platform mutated into a collection of A/B tested addiction loops.
Little is known about TikTok Photos other than a reference to the application found by assembleDebug, a blogger who routinely decompiles and digs through the code of Android apps. A post on the blog TheSPAndroid points out that the TikTok app already includes text—likely to be pushed to users in the coming weeks—guiding users through setting up a new app called "Tiktok Photos." Here's some text ripped straight from the current Android version of TikTok:
TikTok Photos will be launched soon, we hope to help you gain new audiences in the new app. If the switch is on, we'll sync your public photos to the new app, whether you close the pop-up or not.
The existence of text like this in the current version of TikTok implies that ByteDance plans on launching the photo app soon and that existing TikTok users will be encouraged to install it. Of course, it's possible that TikTok is simply testing out a new idea internally; there's no guarantee this app will actually see the light of day. TheSPAndroid also found image files that are almost certainly the logo for this application, whatever the state of this app may be.
It would an interesting time for TikTok to launch a new app, to say the least. Bipartisan legislation working its way through the US Congress would force ByteDance, based in China, to "divest" from TikTok in order for it to continue operating in the United States. Last week TikTok asked users to help stop the US government from banning the app, using an in-app prompt to direct users to call their representatives. The resulting wave of phone calls was so overwhelming that it backfired: the calls convinced some members of Congress that the app is too powerful. The bill unanimously passed committee right after the protest.
I can't help but hope that some application replaces what Instagram used to be. I would like to have a place to browse photos published by my friends and family that doesn't interrupt me with viral videos. Given the current political environment, and given TikTok's own track record, I doubt TikTok Photos will turn into that. I guess I'll just keep hoping that a new app captures the feeling of early Instagram soon, and actually catches on.