• by Colin Kirkland , June 21, 2024

TikTok has launched a new image-sharing app called Whee, which it says is designed specifically for sending and receiving photos between close friends.

By touting the importance of “authenticity” and “life moments,” the ByteDance-owned company is trying to compete with Instagram while tapping into the success of apps like BeReal.

“Whee is a new social app created to keep you connected with your close friends through life's spontaneous moments,” reads the app's Google Play description. “Capture and share real-life photos that only your friends can see, allowing you to be your most authentic self.”

Screenshots included in the Google Play Store showcase the app’s highlights, including a photo viewfinder, a list of friends users can message directly, a photo feed, and a “memories” section. The overall focus on sharing with close friends paired with the ability to look back at past moments mirrors the overall design of one-post-per-day app BeReal, with the added ability to post as much as one wants to.

This is not TikTok's first photo-sharing app. In April, the company began rolling out Notes, an app that looks like an Instagram-copycat minus the inclusion of some additional features like a user's ability to type headlines for images above a photo-caption.

But while Notes focuses on “informative photo-text content about people's lives, where you can see individuals sharing their travel tips, daily recipes, and more,” Whee prioritizes private sharing, and could even open the door to users who want to share product images in more intimate settings.

It is also possible that TikTok is simply using these generic photo-sharing apps to collect data around user trends to deepen the company's insights for further TikTok ad targeting strategies.

Whee is currently available on Android in “more than a dozen countries.” However, the U.S. is not yet included in this initial rollout, and the app is not currently on the iOS App Store.