TikTok Clones

When TikTok gained popularity during the height of the pandemic (2020), other social media platforms noticed that something was working right for the platform that made it so addictive.

Short-form Video Content  •  Infinite Scroll  •  Post Size Ratio

Instagram

Short-form Video Content

While riding on the coattails of the TikTok phenomenon, Instagram introduced Reels. Short videos spanning from 15 to 90 seconds that can be shared with anyone on the platform. Instagram focused most of their attention to promoting Reels as a to a way to reach more accounts to gain more followers as its main selling point - even offering payouts for creators to begin using the new feature. 

Infinite Scroll

Loading content continuously as the user scrolls down eliminates the need for pagination — breaking content up into multiple pages. Instagram went as far as including suggested content and ads which users complained about so in counter Instagram now includes “You’re All Caught Up” with the options to View Older Posts.

Post Size Ratio

Gone are the days of the infamous Instagram Square of 1:1 with images utilizing more space newer phone sizes have to offer. Portrait sizes at 9:16 have grown in popularity using prime real estate on larger screen sizes. 

YouTube

Short-form Video Content

After Instagram created Reels trying to keep up with TikTok, YouTube, which is known best for long form content, figured that they should jump on the trend as well and introduce YouTube Shorts. 

Infinite Scroll

Whether it is YouTube Shorts or the YouTube homepage, the endless amount of content available for scrolling is similar. Only with occasional ads and plenty of suggested content. YouTube Shorts is no different with its algorithmic non stop flow. 

Post Size Ratio

The increase of viewership being on mobile or portable devices, created the standard video size to be 9:16 from 16:9 of rotating a users phone. The only thing making it tough for YouTube users and creators, is knowing when to film in portrait or landscape view demanding on the way they plan to post the content. 

Spotify

Short-form Video Content

Spotify, like many other platforms, received backlash of copying TikTok but Spotify takes a few elements from each platform and makes it their own in which users can vertically scroll through a TikTok-like video feed of music and podcast recommendations.

Infinite Scroll

Suggested content is overflowing and similar to Instagram stories, content within the app shares story based visuals.  

Post Size Ratio

Album sizes were small but now include moving visuals during audio play. 

Conclusion

Which does it best?

Aesthetic

Spotify, is the winner for me and many others as it has been reported that users who have Apple Music still prefer to use Spotify. 

Ease of use

YouTube would be the easiest to use in this case because it does not require everyone to share content but to just enjoy both long form or short form content now. 

Utility

TikTok with its continued popularity has surpassed others when it comes to being profitable but YouTube comes in close with the amount of content creators starting on that platform first. 

*This write-up was part of the DePaul University Human-Computer Interaction Master's Degree curriculum