Summary
- TikTok updated desktop features to include a floating mini-player and horizontal live streaming.
- The desktop interface has a modular layout to reduce distractions and a new Collections feature.
- Elsewhere, Instagram is preparing to launch a standalone Reels app to compete more directly with TikTok.
YouTube’s been chasing TikTok’s audience for years. TikTok hardly invented short-form social video (remember Vine?), but it certainly popularized it in a way no platform had before. Shorts videos were YouTube’s attempt to capture some of that TikTok magic — if you spend any time watching Shorts, you’ll surely see plenty of content pulled directly from TikTok and reposted on YouTube.
Now, TikTok’s making a grab for some of YouTube’s bread and butter with updated desktop features. TikTok already had a desktop interface, but with its latest round of updates, the short-form platform is picking up a few features that should look familiar to YouTube users.
As TikTok has shared on its blog, the desktop interface accessible at TikTok.com has been revamped with a handful of features you might find useful if you’re accessing the short-form video service from your desk. There’s a new floating mini-player sort of like the one YouTube offers when you navigate away from a video. Unlike on YouTube, though, TikTok’s floating player can be freely moved around your desktop and over other windows, making it closer to Google Meet’s floating video window implementation. The mini-player is only available on desktop inside the Chrome browser.
TikTok’s also picking up horizontal live streaming. You’ll be able to watch these landscape-orientation videos full-screen on desktop, and also on mobile by rotating your device. TikTok also mentions an improved “modular layout” to reduce distractions and facilitate “seamless feed exploration,” and a new Collections fetaure that lets you save videos into multiple custom categories.
New features available right now
All of the features above are available at TikTok.com right now. The platform’s not becoming a desktop-first experience, by any means, but these recent changes should make its desktop interface a little more user-friendly.
In other TikTok news, Instagram may be making a more direct play for TikTok’s audience by splitting off its Reels into a separate app. According to The Information, Instagram is internally preparing to launch a standalone Reels app that’ll be more directly competitive with TikTok.
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