Back then, when a new social media platform was introduced, there wasn’t one quite like it yet on the market. It stood out from others, filled a gap in demand, and offered unique features. But does that sentiment still apply?
Today, the lines that separate the previously distinctive social media sites blur. That begs the question: Have all social media sites begun turning into the same thing? Let’s explore.
Should Social Media Platforms Stick to Their Lanes?
TikTok is for short-form content, YouTube for long, Instagram is for posting images, Twitter for written posts, and Snapchat is for things that won’t stick around after 24 hours.
At least, that’s how it was once.
Today, the lines between the platforms are already blurred to the point that a single social media site contains features that combine two or more of the others.
The platforms overlap and do their best to entice users to stay on them rather than switch. That’s what the companies behind the sites want, but what do users want?
Did users ask for an all-encompassing app that offers everything under the sun? Or is that something they have to put up with while enjoying their preferred platforms?
A Unique Feature? Not For Long
Most things change, grow, and evolve with the times. Social media, too. Platforms that began as one thing are currently a balancing act for several.
When a new social media platform pops up, the ones already present, take heed. Any new and exciting features get examined then copied. Take Instagram, for example.
When Instagram arrived on the scene, it occupied a single corner of the market. It was the best place to share images.
As time went on, it started to offer features attributed to other social media sites that came after it. First, Instagram included Stories, which was the company’s response to Snapchat’s popularity. Then it incorporated Reels to compete with TikTok.
But do people go on Instagram for those things, or are they just after images?
Did users ask for the incorporation of features usually associated with other social media sites? Hardly. After all, half or more of the Instagram Reels have the TikTok logo as they are reposts from the other platform.
The question is, are you going to delete TikTok and Snapchat in place of keeping Instagram since it boasts the same features as the other two apps?
Chances are, you won’t.
How Social Media Similarity Affects Users
Let’s examine some of the consequences that users face when platforms overlap by copying each other’s features.
All Social Media Apps Feel the Same
At some point, all the platforms start to feel the same.
Integrating features by taking them from other platforms inevitably leads to these platforms copying each other, feeling repetitive.
Whereas before, each app had a clear, distinctive purpose, nowadays, they all seem to be going in the same direction, offering the same things.
If a new social media app arrives on the scene and becomes popular with users, the other established platforms begin copying its distinctive features. If one of the established sites decides to try something new, and it works, the same happens.
At what point does originality stop mattering since it won’t stay original for long?
Is there a single user who wishes to have five separate apps that do the same thing on their phone?
Social Media Apps Force Change, but Is It a Wanted One?
It’s a gamble when an app decides to integrate another app’s features to gain more users. Will it work? Or will it backfire and end up leading to a decrease in engagement? That question is especially prudent when it’s a change no one asked for in the first place.
Let’s look at TikTok.
TikTok offers short-form content. That’s where it thrives, with brief sketch-type videos, sped-up montages, dances, stunts, and so on. The focus being on short.
No one goes on TikTok to consume long-form content. That’s what YouTube is for, after all.
TikTok allowed its users to post clips that lasted up to 15 seconds in its infancy. The time then grew to one minute, then three, and it’s now increased up to 10 whole minutes.
Did anyone request ten-minute-long videos on TikTok? Whether it’s a yes or a no, users will now have to navigate the app and its new feature.
It’s been a well-known gag that you can spend seven hours browsing the app while viewing ten-second long clips and not realize how long it’s been.
However, if you still wish to spend your time on TikTok watching short-form content today, you’ll have to endure the long videos sprinkled throughout your page.
If you happen upon a TikTok that grips your attention, and you think it’s a minute long, but it ends up being nine minutes long, will you keep watching? Will you endure, or will you leave the app, having felt duped into watching such a long video?
If changes are meant for the benefit of users, how exactly does this implementation benefit TikTok’s users? The users who are used to (and prefer) short clips rather than long ones?
Our Favorite Social Media Apps Change Their Core
Piggybacking off the previous point, a new question arises: Are newly-implemented features changing the nature of your favorite apps?
While TikTok is implementing long-form content on its platform, both YouTube and Instagram, having seen the massive success short-form videos bring, scramble to implement such features to steal some of TikTok’s audience.
If you go on TikTok to consume short clips and on YouTube for long ones, and they implement the opposite to what they’re known for, are they changing to the point of completely switching their core purpose?
All You Need Is One App That Does Everything, or Do You?
Social media apps started as intuitive, easily navigated platforms that offered a couple of useful things that led you to keep and use them. Today, each app is expected to be a jack of all trades. Or so the companies behind them believe.
Apps seem to think they need to offer everything, every feature found elsewhere. And, why? Well, because users wish for a single app that amalgamates all the others, of course!
An app that lets you post long-form YouTube-like and short-form TikTok-like content, written posts like Twitter and Facebook, images like on Instagram, and Snapchat-like disappearing content.
But is that really true? Does anyone want an all-in-one social media app?
Furthermore, if such a beast existed, would you delete all other social media apps and leave just that one app to rule them all? Or would you have seven social media apps that essentially do the same thing?
It’s safe to say that we’ve reached a point when there are just too many features available under a single social media app. All the apps bounce off each other and copy their most prominent features, but to what end?
It’s hardly because users request it, and if anything, unsolicited changes are more likely to alienate users rather than draw them in.
Different Journey, Same Destination?
When apps copy their features, they become the same thing under a different name. But to whose benefit?
Twitter introduced a feature called Twitter Spaces that allows live audio conversations. It’s believed the Spaces feature is a response to apps like Clubhouse and Spotify Greenroom.
But Twitter users didn’t ask for that. Instead, they’ve spent years asking for an edit button for tweets and are yet to get one.
When social media apps introduce “new” features that are, in actuality, a copy of another platform’s successful characteristics, they’re not doing it for the benefit of the users they already have.
It’s simply an attempt to draw in new ones. There’s little care for the established core audience of the app, and that’s a tragedy in itself.
