Popular video-sharing app TikTok is adding a new feature called Photo Mode that lets users share multiple images in one post.
Posts will be featured on the user’s For You page and will support adding music and captions with up to 2,200 characters.
Mashable reports that users are already filling pages with slideshows of recycled memes instead of video content and laments that it is killing TikTok’s “For You” algorithmically generated feed.
The latest development is an ironic twist on what’s happened in the past year.
Instagram and other platforms have been copying features from TikTok and integrating them into their short-format video features.
Despite efforts to replicate the popularity of TikTok’s style, The Wall Street Journal reports that Instagram is struggling to get anywhere near the amount of daily watch time on its rival feature Reels.
Many Instagram creators have decried the platform’s increased focus on videos instead of working on improving the photo-sharing features that made it popular.
YouTube and Twitter have also recently copied TikTok with their own short-format video feeds and accompanying features.
In the case of YouTube, its Shorts feed has replicated TikTok elements like a watermark for videos shared on other platforms, the ability to add voice-overs, and the inclusion of ads.
TikTok has seen astounding growth in the past few years, reaching 1 billion users in the third quarter of 2021. That figure is expected to surge to 1.8 billion by the end of 2022.
Those numbers would put it close to the 2-billion reach of the world’s most popular third-party chat app — WhatsApp — another product from Instagram parent company Meta Platforms.
