Detailed Guide on How to Create an App Like TikTok

Users must be able to upload content to their accounts. That’s the driving force of all similar platforms. TikTok’s current restrictions limit the length of ready-made videos to 10 minutes, allowing creators to come up with all kinds of creative ideas.

The platform must provide different editing tools for creators to tailor content better. TikTok allows users to apply various filters & effects, retouch, speed up, and trim their videos. Some other features involve adding music and applying templates.

Live streams allow people to interact with a large audience in real time, building a strong sense of community. There are no limits on topics. From Q&A sessions to gaming nights, the only important thing is that everyone has fun. TikTok allows people to donate to streamers during live sessions.

Sharing content is a must. It’s a way to attract more users to the platform and keep people engaged with the app for a longer timeframe. That’s why there should be a possibility to share content internally and externally. It is best if external sources include all popular social media.

The “Discovery” section shows trending content that’s gaining popularity very quickly. It’s a must-have to increase user engagement and promote the creation of quality content. The search option is also necessary so that people could find accounts, topics, and hashtags of their interest.

There are hundreds of features required to develop an app like TikTok or even better. Some additional options that must be mentioned are:

• Account creation;
• Profile editing;
• Recommendation algorithm;
• Comment sections;
• Notifications.

If you aim to conquer the market, you need to think of a concept that brings something unique and wins where TikTok has flaws. That’s how you can potentially grab a share of the giant’s audience.

Market analysis sets the foundation for your future application. Your first step must include research on your competitors like TikTok, Likee, KWAI, Instagram, and other apps with similar features. This is important to choose the right features for your app and determine your marketing strategy.

There is no sense in building a complete TikTok clone. Ask yourself as a user: “Why should I use this app when I already have TikTok?” You would only move to something that’s better, more interesting, and more engaging. That’s what you should aim to create.

During this stage, you must also determine your target audience. Avoid using general settings like “males aged 18” because they bring no value to your research. Focus on interests and behaviors. These provide a deeper insight into your potential user base. 

The two options to consider when building a user portrait are:

• Demographic profile. This type of segmentation includes age, location, device OS, financial status, and other related data. It is required to help you build a general image.
• Behavioral data. You must understand the driving force behind each user’s decision. This section includes interests, expectations, needs, and other similar information.

This data will help you improve your marketing efforts and provide a personalized experience for each user. It is one of the cornerstones of developing a successful application.

When considering creating an alternative for TikTok, you probably aim to reach the same profitability. That’s why it is necessary to determine your software’s monetization models.

TikTok mostly earns money from these models:

• In-app purchases. TikTok lets users support streamers by buying digital gifts within the platform. These are purchased with coins that are bought for real money. You can come up with other types of microtransactions like unlocking fonts, profile backgrounds, etc.
• Advertising. TikTok regularly shows users ads of all kinds. These include in-feed ads, brand takeovers, TopView, branded effects, and other types. Ad revenue comes as the dominant source of income for this platform.

Think of all the ideas you could implement. Avoid significant paywalls to provide a good user experience. If you focus on income too much and hide all features behind payments, you will drive most users away. Try finding the perfect balance.

Now that you’ve gathered some data for the app’s basics, it’s time to start collaborating with an outsourcing development team. Most companies start by estimating the project requirements, conducting business analysis, choosing the tech stack, providing estimates, and planning the development steps.

During this stage, you should create a wireframe that shows how your app works and what it looks like. This will help you implement any required changes before the actual development begins. Once that is confirmed, proceed to build the software’s MVP.

A minimum viable product (MVP) is needed to test your idea and determine where to invest in future development. Only must-have features are added at this phase. This lets you validate the whole concept of the software while minimizing expenses before you get a clear vision.

The MVP should include the following:

• Account registration;
• Profile settings;
• Basic UI;
• Photo & video creation and uploading;
• Search options;
• Sharing options.

All features combined take about 600 hours to develop. You can modify the functions you include in your MVP, but remember that it must involve all the basics of a social media app.

Publish your MVP on all possible platforms to see what the community thinks about it. You should gather user feedback to define the future development path. Some features may be removed after this stage, and that’s absolutely normal.

Apart from validating your idea, you will also understand whether the chosen technologies are a good match for your expectations in terms of performance and throughput. It is extremely important that potential issues in these regards are detected as soon as possible. This will help you avoid losing thousands of dollars.

Note that testing your MVP requires having an interested audience. While you can test the app by hiring QA engineers, the true validation can only work with your target audience. People will provide you with the deepest insights in terms of usability, engaging features, and boring parts. 

That’s why you need to start marketing your idea slightly before the MVP is created. There are no limitations in terms of the number of people using your MVP. The more, the better. You need to get maximum from your target audience to build a top-notch product.

Now you gradually turn your MVP into a whole product with all must-have and nice-to-have features. It is time to focus on full-fledged marketing and maintenance.

Advertising is essential to attract a large audience. People won’t find out about your application unless you spread the word, so you must set a decent budget to cover all major digital channels. Some ideas include:

• Targeted ads on social media;
• Collaborations with bloggers;
• Growing your own social media pages.

At the same time, you must keep on developing your app by fixing issues and adding new features. You will definitely come across multiple ideas to implement, so your development team will have quite a lot of work to do. Just don’t let the app stagnate. Keep it growing!