SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 ― TikTok is branching out into photos. The Chinese social platform recently announced the launch of TikTok Notes, a new app, still in the testing phase, which aims to compete directly with Instagram.

TikTok is no longer content with being a simple video-sharing platform. The popular social site recently announced the launch of Notes, a new app that aims to compete with Instagram. According to screenshots taken by some users, TikTok Notes will enable users to share photos. Users have also received a notification alerting them to the fact that their photo posts may be republished on Notes, unless they opt out.

"As part of our continued commitment to innovating the TikTok experience, we’re exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats,” a TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch.

For the moment, the Chinese giant has not announced a launch date for the Notes app. The design of the application should also be revealed shortly, according to Tech Crunch. In the meantime, the https://notes.tiktok.com/ website offers a first glimpse of what's to come.

TikTok hopes that Notes will enable it to compete with Instagram, currently the most popular social app among young people. According to a recent study, American 12-34-year-olds largely favour Instagram, followed by TikTok and Facebook.

Similarly, TikTok has sought to compete with YouTube by launching a trail of 30-minute videos. The application had already taken a first step towards longer-form content by launching a 10-minute video format. ― ETX Studio