TikTok Notes starts rolling out as a new rival to Instagram

TikTok has started rolling out its Instagram rival, TikTok Notes, to select Android and iOS users “for download and limited testing in Australia and Canada.” A tweet announcing the launch, as well as the App Store and Google Play listings, showed off some official images of the app that offer insights about how it works for those of us who don’t have access yet.

In them, we see that you can write up headlines for images above your captions, which is a feature Instagram doesn’t natively offer.

Image: TikTok

The homepage also seems to be divided into two sections, with a separate page where you can view posts from people you follow and another “For You” page. It’s organized a bit like Pinterest’s homepage but with a smaller, two-column grid. It’s not clear whose posts are highlighted here, but it’s likely accounts similar to the ones you follow TikTok thinks you might like.

Besides these small tweaks, though, the app is very similar to Instagram, which is a change from the usual. For years, Meta’s been the one copying other social media platforms like TikTok with Reels and Snapchat with Stories. With TikTok Notes, though, TikTok looks like it’s copying back.

TikTok announced the new photo-sharing app earlier this month via a notification sent to users. At the time, it didn’t provide many details about the app beyond calling it TikTok Notes and suggested TikTok would populate it with users’ existing and future public TikTok photo posts unless they opt out.