What Is TikTok Now?

Social media companies are waging a war that seems much like the “space race” and the “arms races” between rival nations in the 20th century. When one app adds a feature, several others quickly move to duplicate or improve it on their apps.

The impressive rise of TikTok led to the creation of Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The success of Snapchat Stories triggered the birth of Instagram Stories, which gave birth to Facebook Stories.

And the surprising hoopla surrounding BeReal’s signature feature prompted TikTok to come up with its own variation, known as TikTok Now.

What Is BeReal?

BeReal is a photo-sharing app designed with one basic purpose. Users receive a notification once per day, telling them that they have two minutes to take and post a photo (taken with the front and back cameras on their phone) to show what they’re doing. People are notified at different times each day, providing the platform with a constant stream of new content.

Photos (and now, short videos) can’t be edited; only a caption is permitted, with no filters or effects. Users choose whether uploads can be seen just by their friends on the “Friends Only” feed, or can be viewed by others on a “Discovery” channel. There are no likes, reposts, hashtags, or direct messages, and no one can view photos until they’ve posted their own.

The French company that created BeReal wanted to target GenZ users with a product that discouraged “overuse” and focused on “friends” instead of “followers.”BeReal was a hit at first, attracting nearly 50 million users (the majority on college campuses), but daily usage has dropped substantially since then.

How Is TikTok Now Different from BeReal?

BeReal was released in 2020 but became a hit in 2022 — the same year that TikTok released its copycat feature.TikTok Now was initially available on both the TikTok platform and as a standalone app, but it’s since been removed from the mainstream social platform.

The basics of TikTok Now will sound familiar. Users receive notifications that include a three-minute countdown clock labeled “Time to Now.” They must shoot and upload either their dual-camera photo or 10-second video before the clock hits zero, after which they can view other photos that have been shared over the previous 24 hours.

What features separate TikTok Now from BeReal?

• “Now” content is private by default, only visible to your followers who follow you back. TikTok users can change their settings, though, to allow Now content to be seen by all of their followers or by all app users.
• TikTok Now allows users to like photos and videos; BeReal only allows people to post emojis in response to a photo or video and doesn’t tally engagements.
• TikTok Now has been removed from the TikTok platform and is now only available as a standalone app, with no promise that the app will continue to be supported for long. BeReal was recently purchased by another French app developer who promises that the platform isn’t going anywhere.