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TikTok Considers Launching Group Chat Feature

March 17, 2021 11:23 pm

Beijing (PingWest)—Short video platform TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, may launch a group messaging feature this year, Reuters reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Group messaging is part of the parent company's plan to develop TikTok into more of a "social interactions app", one of the sources said. The feature has been part of the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, since 2019.

The report claims that ByteDance had internal discussions last year about introducing the group chat feature but put many updates on hold after the app came under fire from the Trump administration and was banned in India.

It is currently evaluating when and where it will launch group chats on TikTok, the sources said.

Launched in September 2016, TikTok has exploded in popularity over the past five years. The latest TikTok statistics show that, as of January 2021, the platform has 689 million monthly active users worldwide.