TikTok’s trying out yet another app as it seeks to expand engagement opportunities, and tap into broader usage trends.

TikTok’s latest app experiment is something called Whee, which is an Instagram-like feed of images, designed to only be shared with friends.

As explained by TikTok:

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

But hang on, didn’t TikTok already release a still image based app?

Yes, yes it did.

Back in April, TikTok launched a separate app called Notes, which is also a photo sharing app.

That app also looks like Instagram, though it looks even more like TikTok’s other separate app Lemon8 which it launched last year.

Lemon8 is more specifically focused on products and promotions, so the use case isn’t the same as Whee and Notes.

So what makes Whee and Notes different, and why is TikTok so hell-bent on facilitating image sharing, alongside its main short-form video app?

Well, in terms of difference, Whee seems to be focused on friend sharing only, while Notes is a more broad audience type app.

Notes is described on the App Store as:

“TikTok Notes is a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo-text content about people's lives, where you can see individuals sharing their travel tips, daily recipes, and more.”

So it’s more of an IG-like public sharing platform for visual content, as opposed to enclosed sharing.

In regards to why images, that likely relates to Chinese market trends.

Tencent-backed Xiaohongshu, another Instagram clone, has seen a big rise in the Chinese market of late, which has also expanded into eCommerce opportunities.

Seemingly, TikTok’s hoping to replicate the same with Notes in Western markets, while Whee would lean into more private sharing, and maybe provide users with more ways to share images of products, offering further research insight for TikTok ad targeting?

I don’t know, but eCommerce is TikTok’s main focus, and it seems like it would have to be tied back to that somehow.

Either way, it does seem like an odd launch, especially considering that people already conduct most of this type of activity on Instagram or Snapchat.

But TikTok’s trying it out anyway, and it’ll be interesting to see if/how they look to entice users across to the new visual app.