Copying Instagram, TikTok Will Have a Messaging Feature on the Platform

JAKARTA - It looks like TikTok is trying to develop more social engagement features, which include messaging, in-stream chat and more.

The company's move came to light when the company posted a new job ad, titled TikTok Social, to build several features with new employees.

On a job listing for an engineering lead, TikTok posted, "We are the messaging team at TikTok. Our team mission is to facilitate meaningful user relationships through the TikTok messaging experience, which is still in its infancy."

As for the backend technology leader, TikTok explained the person's role would include collaborating with teams in various countries and regions to provide typical TikTok Social solutions such as messaging.

Likewise, the backend software engineer role states the TikTok Social team will oversee “User Profiles, Stories, Inbox, Messages, Follows, Likes, Comments, Tags, etc.”

With this information, ByteDance's short video application will act like Instagram which also has a messaging feature called Direct Messages (DM).

Instagram is also imitating TikTok with its short video feature dubbed Reels, as reported by Axios via The Verge, Wednesday, September 6.

For your information, TikTok continues to advance to crush its competitors by presenting new features, including testing a special music application, bringing more shopping to the platform, embracing podcasts and text posts.