TikTok is giving customers new methods to work together with others by way of direct messages (DMs), the corporate instructed TechCrunch on Friday. Customers will now be capable to ship voice notes and share as much as 9 photos or movies in one-to-one and group chats on the platform.
With these new options, TikTok is positioning itself as extra than simply an leisure platform, aiming to change into a spot the place customers work together frequently past merely sending one another TikTok movies. Moreover, the brand new capabilities convey TikTok’s messaging expertise extra consistent with that of different fashionable social apps and providers.
With voice notes, customers can document and ship audio messages as much as 60 seconds lengthy. The launch of the characteristic comes as providers like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Apple’s Messages already provide the flexibility to ship voice notes to others by way of DMs.
It is sensible for TikTok so as to add voice notes to its DMs, particularly as a rising variety of folks, notably Gen Z, are embracing the format for communication.
The characteristic is rolling out over the subsequent few weeks, TikTok says.
As for sharing photographs and movies, customers can both take a photograph or video with their digital camera or choose one from their digital camera roll to share it with others. They will additionally select to edit the content material earlier than sending it.
For consumer security, folks can’t ship a picture or video as their preliminary message request. For instance, if somebody messages you for the primary time, they’ll’t ship a photograph or video they’ve taken themselves; they’ll solely share content material already on TikTok.
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Moreover, when somebody chooses to ship a photograph or video, TikTok will remind them to guard their privateness and be aware of who they’re sending that content material to.
Whereas DMs on TikTok are unavailable to customers beneath the age of 16, the corporate is including protections for customers between the ages of 16 and 18. For example, TikTok has automated programs in place to detect and block photos containing nudity. Which means that the sender might be blocked from sending the nude picture, and the receiver gained’t see the picture in any respect.
Customers above the age of 18 can select to toggle this security characteristic on of their app settings.
TikTok sees the brand new options as a method for customers to specific themselves and join with others in ways in which they’re already accustomed to.
The transfer comes as TikTok has been working to construct out its messaging product. Final 12 months, the platform launched group chats, giving customers the flexibility to speak with as much as 32 folks without delay. TikTok additionally just lately rolled out Creator Chat Rooms, a devoted house for creators and their followers to attach and work together with one another.
