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ByteDance, the creator of the wildly popular video-based social media app TikTok, has quietly launched a new app called Whee. It is a photo-sharing platform seemingly aimed to rival Instagram, Snapchat, BeReal, and the likes. The new app is available to download from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store in some markets outside the US.
TikTok maker launches Whee, an apparent Instagram clone
Whee debuted on the Play Store without any fanfare. ByteDance says the app will offer a more intimate and authentic photo-sharing experience between friends. “Whee is a new social app created to keep you connected with your close friends through life’s spontaneous moments,” the official description reads. “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.”
According to APKMirror founder Artem Russakovskii, Whee is currently available in over a dozen countries. While we couldn’t download the app, Android Authority could. However, the app didn’t work, showing an error when trying to log in (you can seemingly log in with your existing TikTok account). Using a VPN didn’t help. As such, we can’t tell you what makes Whee different from existing social media platforms. The screenshots provided by ByteDance give away a thing or two.
From what we can see, Whee is an intimate version of Instagram. It lets you share photos with your close friends. Perhaps it’s a standalone app equivalent of Instagram’s Close Friends filter. When enabled, your posts and stories are only visible to your selected friends. Whee may function similarly, letting friends share memories without allowing the whole world to see them. It’s slightly different from BeReal, which encourages users to share real-time photos without editing them.
TikTok already has an Instagrame clone
Interestingly, this is the second Instagram-inspired app ByteDance has launched in recent months. TikTok Notes debuted in April as a new platform to share photos with notes. The company describes it as “a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo-text content about people’s lives.” It aims to make TikTok Notes the ultimate destination for sharing travel tips, cooking recipes, and other forms of content that may require text notes alongside photos and videos.
While TikTok Notes is designed to let you share content with the public, Whee is a more intimate social media platform. It appears the TikTok maker took Instagram and separated it into two different apps for different use cases. Time will tell whether ByteDance plans to launch the new app in the US where TikTok is facing a nationwide ban. The company has until January 2025 to sell the app or exit the country, unless it gets a court order blocking the ban.