Forget about short-form video — is text-based social media the next big thing?
Seemingly in response to the release of Instagram’s Threads and buzz about X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok has just introduced text posts.
In their blog post announcing the new feature, TikTok says, “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.”
Image via TikTok
The text-only feature will allow users to share up to 1,000 characters per post. Each text post can be customized with stickers, sounds, and colored backgrounds.
The new feature may sound a lot like Threads or X, but unlike posts on those platforms, TikTok’s text posts aren’t designed to facilitate conversation.
Instead, text posts on the platform look more like a text-based Instagram story and function similarly to a standard TikTok photo or video post. Conversation may happen in the comments, but the original post’s content remains the priority.
This isn’t the first time TikTok has rolled out a new feature in response to another platform.
In October 2022, TikTok introduced “photo mode” (a take on Instagram’s carousels), and the recently shuttered TikTok Now launched after BeReal exploded in popularity.