Looks like TikTok is finally ready to unveil its new standalone photo app-the one that's been in the works for a while-and a new, official name.
Here's what the pop-up says:

"TikTok Notes, a new app for photo posts, is coming soon. Your existing and future public TikTok photo posts will be shown on TikTok Notes."

Essentially, then, TikTok's going to ship a clone of what Instagram originally was and fill it with all the still images already shared in its main app.
So, playing the Meta game of the Uno reverse card, duplicating some of its features for once, though whether users on TikTok are going to care much about a standalone still-image app is another story.

As mentioned above, TikTok has indeed been experimenting with a photo app for some time, with "TikTok Photos" sightings in the back-end code of the app at the beginning of last month. That now appears to have been replaced with "TikTok Notes," which could also be another snipe at Instagram, which has its own "Notes" feature, which recently added the ability to share various different types of updates with chosen friends.

It has also been nudging its users to upload static photos in the application. In 2022, it rolled out a "photo mode," which enables users to share static photos natively in-stream, which it is also nudging by way of pop-up prompts as well.
Developing a still image app will also play into the Chinese market trends in the same way that Tencent-backed Xiaohongshu is being used widely there, basically a homegrown version of Instagram and has achieved huge success since introducing eCommerce functionality.

So, of course, it makes sense for TikTok to give it a shot, using the content that it already has. But I still don't think that users are going to want another still image app, nor that TikTok is able to translate its short-form video success into another platform.

But a ban is looming, and perhaps TikTok's pulling out all the stops, trying out its various experiments while it can.

ByteDance's TikTok has already launched its own separate eCommerce platform, Lemon8, in the West, which it fast branded with a wave of initial attention, then rapidly lost momentum a few months in. It also has TikTok Music, which has gained some traction.

A separate photo app is another potential route, and it does seem like TikTok is moving forward with it, at least as an experiment.

We have made contact with TikTok for further information, and we will update this post with any response we get when they get back to us.