Surprise! Instagram, X, Bluesky Rush-Releasing TikTok Features

With TikTok’s future in the US uncertain, other social platforms are rolling out their own TikTok-like features.

TikTok’s deadline to divest or face a ban in the US has arrived, leaving the app’s future in the country uncertain. But competing social platforms like Instagram have wasted no time in releasing their own TikTok-like features.

Instagram, which is owned by Meta, announced a new app over the weekend, a video-editing platform called Edits. The app appears to be an answer to CapCut, which is owned by TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance. Since even folks who don’t use TikTok but create content on platforms like Instagram have been using CapCut, it makes sense for Instagram to release their own version.

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now,” said Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, in a post on Sunday. “No matter what happens, we think it’s our job to make the most compelling creative tools for those of you who create videos.”

Like CapCut, users will be able to use Edits to work on videos and post them to any platform, not just Instagram or TikTok. The app is available to preorder in the Apple App Store as of Sunday, with the Android version arriving in February.

Similarly, X — the former Twitter — is trying to capitalize on the uncertain future of Chinese-owned apps like TikTok and Lemon8. The company is adding a video tab to allow users to quickly access video content on the platform. X users can scroll through short videos by tapping on a video on their timeline and scrolling up. But this new tab for videos provides a dedicated section for this content to live.

Bluesky, the social platform that emerged after Twitter’s transformation into X, is also adding new features to compete with its contemporaries. An independent developer is creating a photo-sharing app for the platform called Flashes. Upon launch, Flashes could help tap into the growing demand for social media alternatives outside the major tech companies.

Many so-called “TikTok refugees” have made their desires known by rushing to download Rednote, another Chinese-owned social platform. So it makes sense that smaller players like Bluesky would try to gain more traction. Clearly, many users would rather jump ship to a foreign body’s platform than return to a Meta-owned app like Instagram.