TikTok, the Chinese-owned video streaming app, has announced the launch of text-only posts in a bid to ramp up the competition in the social media industry.
According to the platform, this new feature aims to provide users with "another way to express themselves," adding to the diverse options available for content creation.
Earlier this month, TikTok made headlines with the debut of its music streaming service, TikTok Music, positioning itself as a direct competitor to established platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
With the latest update on TikTok, users now have three options to choose from when posting content on the app: photos, videos or text. The platform has ensured that text posts remain engaging and interactive by allowing users to customise their posts with sound, location tags and Duets, which are video reactions to other users' posts.
TikTok says the text posts can now be just as dynamic and engaging as video or photo content. The move comes shortly after TikTok's successful launch of TikTok Music in Brazil and Indonesia, and it is now expanding its music streaming service to Singapore, Mexico and Australia through a beta version.
A spokesperson for TikTok stated that this expansion would allow users to not only discover, listen and share music from the platform but also promote their favourite tracks and artists within their TikTok community.
The video streaming app is also testing other features, including a new landscape mode with select users globally, aiming to enhance user experience and further solidify its position as the world's most popular online destination. In 2021, TikTok garnered unprecedented success, surpassing major players like Google with its tremendous online traffic and reaching over one billion active users worldwide.