ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has introduced an Instagram competitor named Whee. Currently, the app is available only to a select audience.
The tech giant quietly launched Whee earlier this month without a formal announcement, describing it as a social platform designed to “keep you connected with your close friends” through the sharing of “real-life photos that only your friends can see.”
According to Artem Russakovskii, founder of AndroidPolice.com, Whee is available in over a dozen countries. However, users in the United States are unable to access it despite being able to download it from the Google Play Store; an error message appears when they try to log in.
How does the app work?
ByteDance is not the first company to challenge Instagram, which reached 500 million daily users in 2017. Like many apps, Whee has borrowed features from its competitors. The app has a layout similar to Instagram, with comments below square photos and a direct message tab. Users with existing TikTok accounts won’t need to create new ones for Whee. ByteDance informed users last week that unless they opt out, their posts on TikTok might also appear on Whee, though this feature hasn’t been implemented yet.
Whee seems to focus on meme-style content for now, but this could evolve as more users, including content creators, join the platform. The app includes a “following” tab to show posts from people you follow and a “for you” tab that uses TikTok’s algorithm to suggest content, similar to the main TikTok app.
