TikTok Begins Testing In-App Group Chat Functionality

Admittedly, we have all grown to love the group chat feature that many social platforms like Facebook provides.

From planning that next big outing that most likely won't happen to wishing old friends a happy birthday on an old group chat. To offer its users this capability, TikTok has decided to key into this by adding its own group chat feature.

Currently in the testing phase and expected to roll out to users soon, TikTok's version of the group chat feature allows up to 31 users – a small number when compared to the competition, to share in-app content with others in the group.

The addition of these features shows TikTok is trying to branch out from being just an entertainment app to scroll through for hours to becoming another platform for growing connections.

Now ranked by Statista as the fifth most popular social media app with over 1.5 billion users, this could be a great play for TikTok in climbing up the ranks.

Alongside the group chat feature, TikTok announced more features including:

• Stickers management platform: you can use to upload your stickers and see how many others have used them on the platform.
• More safety features: you have to be at least 16 years old to be able to use it – of course as a way to protect teens and other young users on the app.
• Group chat: you can only join or be added to a group chat if a mutual is present in that group chat.

Since most of the time the app is used to just binge-watch a lot of short-form content, I expect the feature to take a while to pick up among its users unless they are able to integrate something really exceptional to make it stand out.

The stickers feature and the ability to check how many people use a sticker you have created might be able to do just that. But, in the end, you never really know.