YouTube Create presented onstage

YouTube's Create app, a competitor to TikTok's creative tools, expands to 13 more markets

YouTube Create presented onstage

Image Credits: YouTube

YouTube Create, Google’s standalone mobile app aimed at creators, which helps them produce both Shorts and longer videos, is expanding to a broader set of markets after last fall’s launch into beta testing. The app was initially available on Android in the U.S. and a handful of other select markets, but today will become available to over a dozen more countries, including Brazil, Spain, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and others.

With this move, Create will now be offered in a total of 21 countries.

The idea behind Create is to offer video creators an easy-to-use suite of free tools for making videos on the go. Announced at YouTube’s Create event last September, the tool aims to address specific challenges creators face, including editing videos and the use of creative tools, like stickers, GIFs and effects. The app additionally takes aim at TikTok, whose built-in creative tools and AR and AI filters have made it a popular choice for non-technical creators who want to experiment with video but may not have editing know-how.

Image Credits: YouTube

With Create, users can upload clips, split and trim videos, use effects and access royalty-free music to complement their videos. These songs, which are copyright-safe, will also sync the beats of the song to the video clips, similar to TikTok.

Another popular tool, Audio Cleanup, leverages a denoising model to reduce background and ambient noise and enhance the audio quality of users’ clips recorded on their smartphones.

Also available is a built-in voiceover tool that includes automatic and editable captions, with various options to stylize the text.

When users have finalized their edits, they can publish directly to YouTube with just a tap.

Image Credits: YouTube

By offering a suite of tools just for YouTube creators, the company hopes to capture more of the market that prefers to use standalone tools for editing videos. For instance, even though TikTok has a large library of built-in effects, many creators turn to ByteDance’s other creative app, CapCut, to prep their TikTok videos. Create offers a similar flow for those who prefer to publish on YouTube instead.

Starting today, the Create app is available in new markets including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. It initially launched in the U.S., Germany, France, U.K., India, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore.

TikTok logo pictured at the company's booth during the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba prefecture on September 15

TikTok's Instagram competitor likely to be named TikTok Notes

TikTok logo pictured at the company's booth during the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba prefecture on September 15

Image Credits: YUICHI YAMAZAKI / Contributor / Getty Images

TikTok’s upcoming Instagram competitor app for sharing photos could be named TikTok Notes, according to screenshots posted by users. TikTok also confirmed the app was in development.

Over the last few days, TikTok users have been getting pop-up notifications about a new TikTok Notes app to share photos.

The notification says that the company is soon launching “a new app for photo posts” called TikTok Notes and users’ existing photo posts will be shared on the app. Users can choose to not share their image posts to the new app too.

TikTok confirmed that it is working on the app but specified that it is not available yet.

“As part of our continued commitment to innovating the TikTok experience, we’re exploring ways to empower our community to create and share their creativity with photos and text in a dedicated space for those formats,” a TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Separately, a TikTok-owned URL — photo.tiktok.com (internet archive link) — shows a placeholder marketing image with the text “Opening in TikTok Notes.”

Photos.tiktok.com site
Image Credits: TikTok

Last month, code and language found in the TikTok APK file — an installable file format for Android — suggested that the company has been working to launch a photo-sharing app called TikTok Photos.

However, the latest pop-ups within TikTok suggest that the company might be considering another name for the app.

Both TikTok and Meta are fiercely competing over social media space. While the ByteDance-owned app is prepping to launch an app related to photo-sharing, Meta rolled out a vertical-first video player for Facebook.

TikTok is also experimenting with different formats like 30-minute videos and even text posts like X and Threads.

TikTok Notes

TikTok starts testing its Instagram competitor TikTok Notes in Canada and Australia

TikTok Notes

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

TikTok is rolling out its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, in select markets. The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in Canada and Australia, the company said.

The company said on X that it is in the “early stage” of the app’s rollout and that the app is “a dedicated space for photo and text content.”

“We hope that the TikTok community will use TikTok Notes to continue sharing their moments through photo posts. Whether documenting adventures, expressing creativity, or simply sharing snapshots of one’s day, the TikTok Notes experience is designed for those who would like to share and engage through photo content,” it said.

The company didn’t say much about the app’s features and functionality apart from the fact that users can log in with their existing TikTok account. Even the app’s description in the app stores is pretty light on details.

“TikTok Notes is a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo-text content about people’s lives, where you can see individuals sharing their travel tips and daily recipes,” the description in the app stores reads.

The screenshots on the App Store listing suggest that the posts will appear in two-column grids on the home page. The screenshots and user posts also indicate that you can post multiple photos through a carousel post.

Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported that the ByteDance-owned company’s Instagram competitor is likely to be named TikTok Notes.

Notably, TikTok already allows image and text posts. However, the company wants to create a new space for this kind of post to compete with Meta’s apps like Instagram and Threads.