The "Tiktokification" of Social Media Apps
Since 2020, Tiktok has taken over as one of the most popular social media apps in the world. It has become an influence on people, creating trends, making songs popular, etc. With the popularity of the app, other social media apps have taken the most popular features and characteristics of Tiktok and placed them in their own apps in order to gain more users on the back of Tiktok’s popularity.
Photo: Hunter & Gatti via: Vogue Mexico
Instagram is the biggest culprit of using Tiktok’s features on their app. In 2020, they announced that they will be having reels; 90 second videos that allow users to see videos from users that they follow along with recommended reels suggested and curated by the app’s algorithm. It is clear that reels are a blatant copy of Tiktok’s format. Reels can utilize a user's instagram stories, allows creators to interact with comments and use templates for their short formed videos.
These videos have Sound Sync technology, which allows users to add voice overs or other audio such as music in their reels. Recently, the social media apps CEO Adam Mosseri announced on Twitter that photos and videos will take the same full screen format of Tiktok for their app, changing the feed viewing experiences of its users and making the app more immersive.
Photo: Hunter & Gatti via: Vogue Mexico
Twitter updated their app to create a “For You” page that shows users short form vertical video content and catered tweets specific to a user. This allows users to interact with video content that aligns with their interests and what they like to view along with any text tweets.
Photo: Hunter & Gatti via: Vogue Mexico
Youtube
Last year, Google released the Youtube Shorts feature, which allows creators to release short (15 to 60 second) form video content. This feature also allows users to watch these videos from the creators that they are subscribed to and creators recommended by Youtube’s algorithm. It also has a Green Screen tool, which is similar to Tiktoks where users can take a section of a video and use it as a background of a short.
Photo: Hunter & Gatti via: Vogue Mexico
In 2021, Facebook announced the release of Facebook Reels, which are similar to Instagram in that they are short form videos on the News Feed or Group tabs on the app for creators to release and users to watch. This is an effort to bring more younger consumers to the app. Users can comment, like, share or repost the videos on the app and creators can make money off of their reels based on post interactions. Since Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, users are able to get suggested reels from Instagram, allowing creators to grow their following on both apps.
Photo: Hunter & Gatti via: Vogue Mexico
Tiktok has impacted many aspects of the world, especially social media. In due time, it seems as though every social media app will look like Tiktok, but that does not mean they don’t have room for uniqueness. Social media users tend to go on various social media apps for different things and reasons. The point of having multiple social media platforms is so they can each bring something to the table and each fulfill something with users.
For instance, people tend to go on Instagram for curated photos or twitter for funny memes and pop culture discourse. Different social media apps attract different audiences and can serve different functions. Creators are able to cater different content to different platforms based on what they offer and what is most popular for each one.
Photo: Hunter & Gatti via: Vogue Mexico
The "tiktokification" of these apps shows that social media app developers are pushing for short form content right now and it is the biggest trend on social media. However, it is important to think about the longevity of these changes. It is hard to tell if these recent updates and format changes will actively keep users on these apps for the long term. The amount of short form videos on these apps could result in consumers going off these apps for the original one: Tiktok or just get off of social media altogether.
It can be hard for users to keep up with social media platforms changing so rapidly. Additionally, sometimes these new formats on apps can be confusing for their users. The best thing that social media developers can do is to follow suit and cater to users as best they can with the rapidly changing social media trends.
