TikTok launched over the weekend its clone BeReal, TikTok Now, as a standalone mobile app in global markets outside the US, mainly on iOS. The app offers a feature set similar to the TikTok Now experience found on the American TikTok app. announced last week. But as an independent mobile app, it offers users the option to sign up to receive push notifications for just those social tags, even if their TikTok notifications are turned off.
While the company noted that TikTok Now will be offered as its own mobile app in some markets, it has yet to launch the app as of press time. ad on Thursday, September 15, 2022. It was also unclear which markets would get access to the feature within TikTok itself or as a standalone app, or when the app would be rolled out.
According to the mobile intelligence company sensor towerThe TikTok Now app launched worldwide late on Sunday, September 18, 2022. Despite being a major new offering from one of the most popular apps in the world, TikTok Now has yet to take a place in the top iPhone apps in any market. at the time of writing.
However, it managed to rank among the top 100 iPhone social media apps in five markets — Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Malta and Singapore — and rank among the top 500 iPhone social media apps in 38 countries. These include 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.
There is also an Android version of the app running in Bermuda, but it is not rated in any other market.
This global rollout speaks to TikTok’s ambition with this new experience shamelessly copied from the best BeReal mobile app. Like BeReal, TikTok Now sends out random push notifications every day, encouraging users to take a photo or video at the same time using their phone’s front and external cameras. Users have a three-minute window to take their own photos or up to a 10-minute video to participate. Friends can then view each other’s photos in the app’s friends feed, or view others’ posts in the Explore feed.
It appears that TikTok believes it can capture the popularity of this social format in markets where BeReal has not yet dominated. However, this can be tricky as BeReal is now #1 in at least 9 markets and is in the top 5 iPhone apps in around 40 countries. However, its main markets are the US, its domestic market is France and the UK, data from Sensor Tower shows. This leaves much of the globe ripe for competition. (In addition, we should note that it is not difficult to thwart such a simple format.)
TikTok declined to elaborate on its strategy for TikTok Now, including why it chose to make TikTok Now a feature in the US but its own app almost everywhere. Instead, the company would only say that it is “experimenting” with the experience and looking to improve TikTok Now by learning how its community uses the format.
