Move Over Threads, TikTok is Taking Its Spin on Text Posts

TikTok has begun allowing creators creators to make posts with just text, adding more non-video features to the short-form video app, the company said in in a press release on Monday. 

Much like on Instagram Reels, TikTok creators can upload text with a simple background for people to read as they’re swiping through content. With text posts, TikTok says you now have more ways to express yourself beyond video. 

This isn’t the first non-video feature introduced to TikTok. Late last year, TikTok brought the ability to share multiple photos in a slideshow in what it called Photo Mode. Here, creators could add captions of up to 2,200 characters. The new text posting feature isn’t too dissimilar from Photo Mode, just minus the photos.

How to create a text post on TikTok

Here’s how to use the new text post feature:

1. Log into the TikTok app.
2. Go to the Camera page.
3. There will be three choices: photo, video and text.
4. Choose Text.
5. Type out the words you want to post.
6. On the Post page, you can then customize your text post, like adding sound, tagging a location, enabling comments, allowing Duets, adding stickers, choosing background colors and more.

TikTok is the latest social media company to introduce text-based sharing. Earlier this month, Meta launched Threads, a Twitter competitor that aims to be a bit more lighthearted and jovial. The app saw immediate success, with 100 million signups in the first week, making it the fastest growing app ever. Momentum on Threads has waned significantly, however, as the app still lacks many features found on Twitter. But it shows an appetite for Twitter alternatives as the longstanding text-based social media app has made a sharp pivot after being purchased by Tesla CEO Elon Musk late last year. 

Since Musk’s takeover, Twitter has seen elevated extremism and unbanned suspended accounts. It also took away blue verification checkmarks from journalists, celebrities and publications, unless they ponied up $8 per month for Twitter Blue. The buy-in nature of verification led to much consumer confusion early on, even going so far as to affect the stock market. 

TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.