Take A Look Back At Instagram's Several Attempts To Copy TikTok In 2021

Christmas is only a few days away, and Instagram's elves are still hard at work replicating TikTok's core features in the hopes of bringing holiday cheer to their Meta masters via improved usage stats and new engagement figures that show that Instagram is still cool, and still the leading platform in their eyes. That isn't the case. All of the reported usage data indicates that Instagram usage is declining among younger audiences, whereas TikTok continues to grow. This irritates the Meta team – but as a fun, seasonal reminder, here's a look back at some of the various ways Instagram has attempted to stifle TikTok's growth over the last year by replicating and copying its features, which has worked to a degree but hasn't actually hindered TikTok's growth.

I present to you the Insta-Tok 12 Ways.

My true love sent me a tee-to-tee duplicate of TikTok on the first day of Insta.

My true love sent me a vertical feed on the second day of Insta for my exact duplicate of TikTok.

On the third day of Insta, my true love sent me a vertical feed with restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, for my exact clone of TikTok.

My true love sent me a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, and a vertical feed on the fourth day of Insta for my TikTok to a tee replica.

My real love sent me Superbeat on the fifth day of Insta. A new remix option, limited reach for re-posted TikToks, and a vertical feed for my TikTok clone.

My true love sent me an 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, a vertical feed, and a TikTok clone to a tee on the sixth day of Insta.

My true love sent me a text to speech effects, a 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, and a vertical feed on the seventh day of TikTok for my perfect TikTok replica.

Longer clips in Stories, text to voice effects, a 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, and a vertical feed were all sent to me on the eighth day of Insta by my true love.

My true love sent to me, on the ninth day of Insta, auto-sync for music, longer clips in Stories, text to speech effects, a 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, a vertical feed, for my tee-to-tee TikTok copy.

My true love sent to me, on the tenth day of Insta, Reels replies in comments, auto-sync for music, lengthier clips in Stories, text to voice effects, a 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, a vertical feed, for my perfect TikTok clone.

My true love sent me an audio tab for Reels clips, Reels replies in comments, auto-sync for music, longer clips in Stories, text to speech effects, a 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, and a vertical feed on the eleventh day of Insta for my perfect TikTok replica.

My true love sent me live-stream shopping, an audio tab for Reels clips, Reels replies in comments, auto-sync for music, longer clips in Stories, text to speech effects, a 'Add Yours' sticker, Superbeat, a new remix option, restricted reach for re-posted TikToks, and a vertical feed on the twelfth day of Insta.

As you can see, Instagram is adamant about demonstrating that whatever TikTok can do, Instagram can do better. It remains to be seen whether it can – and whether viewers care – but you can bet Insta will keep trying, with TikTok expected to surpass 1.5 billion users in the next year, perhaps overtaking Instagram as the world's second-largest social app.