There comes a time in every gigantic, influential social platform’s life when copying its smaller competition seems like a good idea. TikTok’s time is today.
The short-form video app’s new TikTok Now feature — a standalone app in some regions outside the U.S. according to the company — recreates the dual camera experience of BeReal for TikTok’s over 1 billion users.
Time to now —
Like BeReal, TikTok Now uses the front and back camera to capture whatever you’re looking at at a random time during the day (with a notification that tells you it’s “Time to Now”). Posts from your friends are hidden until you post, and there is some concept of an “on time” just like BeReal.
The big wrinkle in TikTok’s version is that you can opt to share a 10-second video instead of a still photo, because TikTok is a video app after all. Otherwise TikTok Now seems to be pound-for-pound a BeReal clone, only one that lives in a Now tab to the right of your Home feed.
The tables have turned —
There’s nothing particularly surprising about one platform cloning another in 2022, but it is interesting that TikTok, a fast-growing social media app and creative suite that’s inspired Facebook and Instagram to completely upend how they work, is the one doing the copying here.
“Time to Now”
Snapchat already has its own take on a BeReal-style feature, and it turns out Instagram has experimented with something similar called “IG Candid” in its journey to turn itself into TikTok with Reels.
Everyone thinks it might be able to steal some of BeReal’s thunder, an TikTok’s just finally grown enough to have a go at it, too.
