TikTok debuted its BeReal clone, TikTok Now, as a separate mobile app over the weekend in worldwide areas other than the United States. iOS was the primary platform for this release. The TikTok Now experience, which was revealed to be coming to the TikTok app in the United States last week, is very similar to the feature set that is offered by this app. However, since it is a separate mobile app, users may opt in to get the push notifications specifically for these social check-ins even if they have their TikTok alerts muted. This is possible even though the app integrates with TikTok.
At the time of the announcement made on September 15, 2022, the firm had not yet released the TikTok Now experience as its own mobile app, despite the fact that it had previously said that the TikTok Now experience will be made available in select areas as a standalone mobile app. It was also unclear whether markets would have access to the functionality inside TikTok itself or as a separate app, as well as when the software would be made available to users. According to information provided by the mobile intelligence company Sensor Tower, the TikTok Now app became available to users all around the world late on September 18, 2022. At the time this article was written, the TikTok Now app has not yet achieved a position in any of the Top Overall iPhone app charts worldwide, despite the fact that it is a brand new big product from one of the applications that is now the most popular in the world.
Despite this, it has been able to break into the top 100 iPhone Social Networking applications in five different markets, including Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Malta, and Singapore. Additionally, it is listed in the top 500 iPhone Social Networking apps in 38 different countries. The following countries are included: Myanmar, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Qatar, Poland, Belgium, New Zealand, Guatemala, Austria, Bahrain, South Africa, Finland, Ghana, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Greece, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Israel, Nigeria, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Algeria, Malaysia, Sweden, Italy, Morocco, Lebanon, Mexico, Denmark, Egypt, Dominican Republic, and Romania.
Bermuda is the only market in which the Android version of the app is currently available; it does not rank in any of the other markets.
This worldwide release is a statement about TikTok’s goals with this new experience, which is an unabashed rip-off of the leading smartphone app BeReal. TikTok Now, much like BeReal, will randomly choose users and give them a push notification every day, urging them to capture a picture or video using both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras on their mobile device at the same time. In order to participate, users have a window of time of three minutes to take images or films that are up to ten minutes long. Friends may then see each other’s images in the app’s Friends feed or they can read posts from others in an Explore feed. Additionally, friends can view posts from others in a feed called Explore. It would seem that TikTok is of the opinion that it may be able to achieve some level of success with this social format in areas where BeReal has not yet managed to dominate. However, this may prove to be challenging given that BeReal is now ranked first in at least nine different markets and is in the top five overall iPhone applications in close to 40 different nations. According to the statistics provided by Sensor Tower, the United States, France (the company’s home market), and the United Kingdom are the company’s three most important markets. Because of this, a significant portion of the world is wide open for business. (Also, we feel the need to stress out that it is not difficult to rip off a format as fundamental as this one.)
TikTok failed to define its approach regarding TikTok Now, particularly why it has opted to make TikTok Now a feature in the United States, but its own app practically everywhere else. TikTok Now was introduced in December 2018. Instead, the firm has simply said that it is “experimenting” with the experience and that it intends to improve TikTok Now as it learns how its community reacts to the new format.