TikTok Now was a feature launched by TikTok in September 2022, directly inspired by BeReal.
You were receiving a random notification every day, and you had 3 minutes to capture a moment with both of your cameras at the same time, in the form of Pictures or a short video. But this feature no longer exists: TikTok removed it less than a year after its launch.
What is TikTok Now?
The principle of TikTok Now was simple: to bring more’authenticity on the platform, encouraging spontaneous sharing, a far cry from highly staged videos. You'd take a photo or a short 10-second video filmed with your two cameras at the same time (front and back), unstaged.
In France and Europe, the feature was integrated directly into the main app. In UNITED STATES, it existed as a separate app. In both cases, the concept was based on that of BeReal, a French app that's very popular among Generation Z.
TikTok was clearly trying to counter the success of BeReal and to maintain its status as the number-one social network among young people. The gamble didn't pay off: the concept failed to find an audience on the platform.
What is BeReal?
BeReal is a French app founded in 2019 by Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau, which was then launched to the public in 2020. Its goal: to promote a more authentic relationship with social media, which has earned it a reputation as anti-Instagram social network.
Every day, the app sends you a notification at a random time. You then have a few minutes to take your photo with both cameras, without filters or editing. You can't delete or edit your shot: it's a real-time, shared in the present moment.
That is exactly the concept that TikTok Now resumed, before disappearing as well.
What are the benefits of TikTok Now?
TikTok Now was based on the concept of BeReal, but with a few notable differences. You could post a 10-second video at most, or just a still photo if you'd prefer. The’simultaneous activation of both cameras allowed you to capture your face and what you were looking at in a single shot, without staging or filters.
The real advantage over BeReal, that was the reach. The entire audience of TikTok was accessible through the back end, which meant it could potentially reach a much wider audience than a standalone app.
Despite these strengths, the innovation remained limited: the feature was modeled after an existing app and didn’t offer much that was truly new. TikTok eventually discontinued it TikTok Now in June 2023, confirming that the concept hadn't caught on on its platform.
To learn more, check out our article on how to do a TikTok live without 500 subscribers.
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