ByteDance is not satisfied with what TikTok currently offers its users and aspires to offer new social capabilities beyond what exists to date.
According to Reuters, ByteDance is planning to launch a group messaging function this year on TikTok, although they are currently discussing the where and when of its launch.
TikTok reportedly preparing for group chats and competing closer to social networks like Facebook
With its possible arrival, it would put it on the same level as its Chinese sibling, Douyin, which has this feature. Group messaging on TikTok is part of ByteDance’s aspirations to turn the short video app into a “social interactions app.”
With this functionality, TikTok would get users to spend more time within the app, with the added benefit that the platform’s top creators would be able to connect more easily with their respective legions of followers.
This could also bring with it a host of new possibilities, which would be added in the form of capabilities gradually, just like other features we’ve already been seeing in recent months.
As happens in these cases, the social platform itself has not wanted to comment on the matter to Reuters, so for the moment, there is no official confirmation of the arrival of this functionality, which, according to one of the sources, would not offer encrypted communications.
ByteDance has been discussing this and other possibilities for TikTok since last year, although for now, they have not been able to move forward due to the events experienced in some territories, especially in the United States under the Trump administration, in addition to the ban on its service in India.
Currently, as clarified by one of the sources, thanks to the stoppage of a government lawsuit activated by the Trump administration by the new administration headed by Joe Biden in the United States, which would have meant the de facto banning of the application in that territory, the return of corporate sponsors to the service was achieved.
The arrival of the group messaging function would put TikTok closer to social networks such as Facebook, which could put it up against the ropes, also taking into account that TikTok is used by users of young ages and young adults.
