TikTok taking on Twitter (and Threads) with new text feature
Threads is threatening to take down Twitter, which is now named X, despite Meta, Microsoft, and hundreds of other companies having a decent legal claim to that particular trademark. But amidst all this bickering, TikTok – the actual rival to both Zuckerberg and Musk – has quietly launched its own text-based social media play.
“Today we’re thrilled to announce the expansion of text posts on TikTok, a new format for creating text-based content that broadens options for creators to share their ideas and express their creativity,” the company announced today.
“With text posts, we’re expanding the boundaries of content creation for everyone on TikTok, giving the written creativity we’ve seen in comments, captions, and videos a dedicated space to shine.”
TikTok’s text-based option doesn’t stray too far from the rest of the platform, in terms of look and feel. But it offers more options than both Threads and the platform formally known as Twitter, and it doesn’t involve you in a silly Silicon Valley tiff, either.
You can add stickers to “add some pizazz” to your post; use both tags and hashtags for easy virality and indexing; change the background colour of your post; add sounds and music; and draft or discard posts if you change your mind, or need to edit something.
All the obvious user security concerns aside, this is actually the competitor that Musk should be most concerned about as he attempts to build Twitter into a world-beating one-symbol monopoly. While he is busy cage-wrestling Zuck, TikTok might have just snuck in to deliver the knock-out blow.
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