TikTok adds text-only posts as video platform continues social media battle

TikTok will offer text-only posts as the video streaming app continues to try and compete as a social media platform. The Chinese-owned app will give users “another way to express themselves” as competition with social media giants heats up.

The new update comes just days after TikTok launched a new music streaming service in Brazil and Indonesia as it attempts to rival Spotify and Apple Music. The company has also rolled out a beta version of the new music service in Singapore, Mexico and Australia.

A TikTok spokesperson told the BBC that the music service would allow users to “listen, share and download the music they have discovered on TikTok, as well as share their favourite tracks and artists with their TikTok community”.

TikTok users looking to upload to the app will now be given three options - videos, photos or text. The new text posts will still allow sound, location and duets, which allow video reactions by other TikTok users.

TikTok said: “These features make it so your text posts are just as dynamic and interactive as any video or photo post.”. The video streaming platform will also be testing other features, including a new landscape mode for select countries.

According to Ofcom, TikTok has become the most popular news source for teenagers in the UK. In 2021, the video streaming platform also became the world’s most popular online app, having more hits than Google, whilst also revealing that they had more than one billion active users globally.

Competition between social media platforms has heated up over the last couple of weeks with Instagram owner Meta creating new platform Threads to rival Twitter. Threads went live earlier this month on Apple and Android phones in 100 countries, including the UK. Meta Boss Mark Zuckerberg revealed that more than 100 million users in less than five days.

It comes as Elon Musk made major changes to Twitter, as the site ditched its iconic blue bird logo for a black and white X. The term tweets will also be changed to “x’s” under Musk’s new plans to change the site.