Just as Twitter shuts down Fleets, its temporary Stories feature cribbed from the likes of Snapchat, TikTok announced that it’s adding a similar feature to the platform
By Michael Gary Wirth
2021-08-04T04:00:00Z
What is Stories?
The feature, which derived its name from the word “fleeting” or temporary, was killed off by the social media giant on August 3rd, a mere eight months after being rolled out to all users. While some Twitter users embraced the feature, posting to it regularly with limited time promotions or jokes, others felt it was a move by Twitter to stay relevant with their competition, such as Facebook and Instagram where a similar feature, Stories, thrives.
However, it seems like the new kid on the social media block is throwing their hat into the temporary stories ring. TikTok, the video-sharing platform which boasts a huge number of dancing trends and lifehacks, has announced that they will be introducing a Stories-like feature, which they insist on calling “Stories.” As with its predecessors, TikTok’s Stories will allow users to post shorter videos or images that disappear after 24 hours, which is exactly how it works on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, yadda yadda yadda…
The news was broken by tech writer Matt Navara after he posted a screencap of the Stories feature on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/MattNavarra/status/1422978662169710597?s=20
It was quickly picked up by other tech sites, like Mashable and Gizmodo, before it was confirmed by a TikTok spokesperson through a statement to Variety. “Currently we’re experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community,” the spokesperson said. “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience.” Though the rep seemed optimistic about Stories, they were sure to mention that the feature may not become a permanent fixture on the platform.
When can we expect it?
There currently is no date on when the feature will be rolled out to users; right now, it’s merely in a pilot test in some countries outside of the United States. It is interesting that TikTok is finally getting into the habit of assimilating popular features from other social media platforms. Last August, Instagram launched its Reels feature, allowing its users to post videos to a separate channel within their profile. At the time, Reels was criticized for being a TikTok knockoff, but the feature was quickly adapted by Instagrammers who realized they could cross-post their content between the two platforms.
At this point, there’s no saying how well received Stories would be by the TikTok creators. For the most part, most TikTokkers main goal is to achieve virality with their posts, and it often can take a couple of days or even weeks for some videos to hit the algorithm just right to go viral. So posts that disappear after 24 hours may not be the type of content these creators want to make. After all, it seemed like Twitter was a good environment for Stories…well, Fleets…to proliferate, but the recent news has proven that to be incorrect.
Will this affect the Creator Fund?
What will be interesting is whether Stories will be eligible for TikTok’s Creator Fund. For those unfamiliar with it, the Creator Fund is a way for TikTokkers to get paid for their success, with TikTok paying out based on the number of views on users’ videos. While the standard to be accepted into the Creator Fund is rather high, with TikTok requiring a user to have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 post views within 30 days, I’m curious if TikTok will be updating those requirements to include Story views. I would almost think they’d have to to get some of their bigger creators on board with the feature; otherwise, what’s their incentive to create content they won’t get paid for?
Only time will tell whether Stories on TikTok will be successful, but if Twitter is any kind of litmus, we should find out the lengths of that success in about eight months.