We’ve often heard about other companies making their own iterations of several of TikTok’s popular features. However, this time it’s the other way around. TikTok just announced TikTok Stories, becoming one of the last major social media platforms to implement such a feature.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, first announced the feature on Twitter. A TikTok spokesperson later confirmed it in an email exchange with The Verge. The Verge suspects the feature, dubbed TikTok Stories, will work the same as story features on other platforms. Once posted, the stories will be live for 24 hours before they are deleted. Viewers can also react and comment on TikTok Stories — similar to how it works on Snapchat and Instagram.
TikTok also seems to be putting video first with the feature. You will reportedly be able to edit videos by adding captions, music and text. However, you will not be able to use still images.
TikTok Stories is a new way for creators to interact with their viewers
Since the videos aren’t permanent, TikTok Stories may be an opportunity to be more casual compared to the standard TikTok video. TikTok creators can interact with their fans through the feature, promote an upcoming post or make a quick announcement. It opens the opportunities for creators to personally connect with their audience while not making a post that will live on their channel indefinitely.
When will the Stories feature release?
TikTok hasn’t revealed how far along TikTok Stories are in the development pipeline. The Verge pointed out that several TikTok users already have access to the feature. So, we could see a platform-wide release soon, but nothing is confirmed at this point. It’s possible TikTok is still testing the feature with a select group of users, and won’t actually release it for some time. Regardless, we hope to see this feature release soon.
It’s interesting to see TikTok starting to take features from other platforms. Aside from TikTok Stories, TikTok also recently extended its video length cap to 3 minutes to take on longer-form video platforms like YouTube. We’ll have to see if it adopts more features from its competitors in the future