As of now, on September 15th, 2020, Tiktok will be banned in the United States. Truly 2020 is the worst year in human history. But, this leaves us wondering, what will happen to the creators on the app? what is the next TikTok? Fortunately, there already is a precedent for this through a little video sharing app called “Vine”. On December 16th, 2016, after 3 years of success, the Vine app was discontinued leaving thousands of creators without a platform. Some tried to transition their 7 seconds skits to 60-second videos on Instagram, while some decided to give that sort of life up and try the “Mainstream” approach for internet fame, Youtube. But what makes Tiktok and Vine’s deaths different is their stances in the world. Vine was a dying app before it was pulled from the app store, Tiktok is as popular as ever, even more likely was made more popular during the 2020 Global Pandemic. So if Viners went to Youtube and Instagram, where will the Tiktokers go?
Funny enough, one of the co-founders of Vine released an app called “Byte” in early 2020. It had a similar approach to what Tiktok originally had, with 15-second videos. But until very recently, Byte relied on whatever audio the user brought with their video. Tiktok was made famous through the use of it’s “sounds”. But, in recent days Byte has announced that they will be adding this feature in an upcoming release. Thousands of Tiktok users have already made the transition over to Byte just in case. After a visit to Byte, the videos seem to be a mix of new original stuff and Tik Tok reuploads. The original stuff is funny, and I’d recommend checking this app out it may be the next TikTok.
Zynn is another short-form video app. One of the big things it has that Tiktok also utilized is its effects. Which allows users to add fun special effects and transitions to their videos. The app is well-reviewed and has an active team behind it which works with and communicates with users. Zynn has a unique feature with the fact that there aren’t inboxes, so you can’t “DM” other creators, which was a problem some users did have with Tiktok. Which, in theory, makes this app safer for younger creators. While Zynn is newer, I feel like in time they will grow to be a strong independent platform on their own to be the next TikTok . All of these apps are going to be similar until Tiktok is gone gone, but once Tiktok is gone I believe we will see unique cultures and identities grow, especially within this app.
Triller seems just as “Tiktoky” as these other apps. It has a massive sound library with ready to use top hits. As well as a large effects library as well as advertise “Professional looking videos in seconds”. What I’d love to see from these apps is one that effectively utilizes Android phones. The way Tiktok and other apps work is they have licensing agreements with Apple to natively use the iPhone camera. While for the android versions the phone basically takes a screenshot of the camera 24 times a second to create video, which lowers the quality. What I do appreciate about Triller is that it has two separate sections for music-based videos/dances and then regular videos, usually comedy ones. It does suffer from the reupload problem. But in time, all these apps will uniquely grow and may be the next TikTok.
Instagram and Youtube
At this point, most big users on Tiktok have established themselves on both of these platforms. You’ll almost exclusively see generic Vlogging content on youtube and modeling type pictures on Instagram. It’s almost unfortunate to see that instead of a “Vine Invasion” we are getting a “Tiktok Invasion” but Tiktok users came over to Youtube well before it was announced that the app might be deleted. GenZ users on Tiktok were just much smarted about adapting and preparing for change, unlike their Millenial Vine counterparts. It’s more likely we will see a focus on Tiktokers posting relevant content to Youtube because the advertising and “making money” part is easier to utilize on that platform.
