Musical.ly and TikTok are merging into a short-video powerhouse

By Emily Price

If you’re a fan of Musical.ly–the smartphone app that lets you lip-sync to create mini-music videos–be prepared for a surprise the next time you update it. Bytedance, the Chinese firm that purchased Musical.y late last year for $1 billion, has decided to blend Musical.ly with another similar app in its portfolio, TikTok. As of Wednesday evening, both short-form video apps will now be available exclusively under the TikTok name.

Launched in September 2016 and also known as Douyin, TikTok was downloaded from the iOS App Store 45.8 million times in the first quarter of this year–more than Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube–according to Sensor Tower, which named it as the world’s most downloaded app. And all the people who have installed it are using it–a lot. The app had 150 million daily active users and 500 million monthly active users in June of this year, according to Chinese publication Xinhuanet. By contrast, Musical.ly recently passed 100 million monthly active users, 50 million fewer than use TikTok in a single day.

As for what the upgrade means for both apps, Bytedance says that TikTok will incorporate the most popular elements of Musical.ly and Tik Tok into a new feed which highlights the user’s community as well as a “For You” section that offers personalized video recommendations. Other new features include a “reaction” feature which will allow users to respond to friends’ videos from their phone, VR-like filters that can be activated by blinking, green screen-like background effects, and other creative tools.

TikTok is available now for users via the iOS App Store and Google Play. Existing Musical.ly users will automatically get the new version the next time they update their app. The new TikTok will also keep existing Musical.ly creator’ account, content, and fan-base information.

 
 
 

 

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