Well, well, well. What a turn-up for the books this is. The copyee has now become the copier as TikTok has revealed a new feature called TikTok Now.

What is TikTok Now?

TikTok now is essentially a clone of BeReal, an app that prompts users to share a candid selfie using the front and back camera at a random point during the day.

TikTok Newsroom

“TikTok Now is the newest way to be entertained and connect with others on TikTok – a daily photo and video experience to share your most authentic moments with the people who matter the most. TikTok Now brings the authenticity of TikTok to a whole new creative experience that connects you with those closest to you.”

TikTok Now has been released as a standalone app across the world, but not in the U.S., where it will be included within the TikTok app itself.

Just like BeReal, TikTok Now sends users a push notification at a random time during a 24-hour window that encourages users to take a snapshot of whatever they’re up to using the front or back camera. When the notification lands, users have three minutes to take a photo or 10 minutes to take a video.

Users can then view their friends’ daily updates from the Friends feed or see random ones from the Explore feed. There are some safety and privacy points to consider, too:

• U16s who use TikTok Now will have their account set to private by default.
• U18s won’t be able to share content on Explore feed.
• 13-15 year-olds can only comment on Friends posts.

18-year-olds and over can share with mutual friends or the wider TikTok Now community. Who sees your posts can be changed in your settings tab.

All of that is essentially identical to how BeReal works. TikTok, have you no shame!?

The race for your time is on

TikTok Now could be an interesting change of direction for the app. TikTok has never been about sharing a user’s daily life with friends and connections – it’s always been a place to find entertaining videos from creators you may not be aware of.

So for TikTok to lean into territory that you’d traditionally consider covered by Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook is an interesting pivot. As a side note, it’s a fun plot twist to watch TikTok turn around and try to pinch some of its main rivals’ territory, especially as they’ve been muscling in on what TikTok does for so long.

For TikTok, if it can replicate a successful product and keep its users in its app for longer, that represents a win for the company. Even if just 1% of its userbase stays an extra 15 minutes a day checking out the latest TikTok Now, that will add up to millions of hours. That’s really what this social media arms race comes down to.

What is BeReal and how does it work?

If you haven’t guessed by now, BeReal (which reportedly has 21m monthly users) works in almost the same way as TikTok Now. At a random point during the day, BeReal sends a push notification saying ‘Time to BeReal’. Users then have two minutes to post a picture of what they’re up to.

It’s supposed to be unfiltered, authentic and down-to-earth. Images can be retaken, but then BeReal will show that you’ve had two bites of the cherry.

Other users can react to a post using an emoji called a RealMoji, which is a selfie that represents an emoji (happy, laughing, angry etc).

Instagram is also getting in on the act

TikTok isn’t the first app to try and steal some of BeReal’s magic fairy dust. Instagram (does Meta have any original ideas anymore?) got their first.

Instagram is now testing Candid Challenges, a feature that looks and feels almost exactly like BeReal.

Eligible users have been able to join the Candid Challenge from inside IG Stories. Once joined, participants are sent a prompt at a random point in the day to share a candid snap of what they’re up to. Sound familiar?

The Candid Challenge is in its early stages of testing, but the fact Instagram has taken a BeReal clone to the testing phase shows how serious it is about adapting a rival idea.