TikTok announced today a new way for creators to build out their content with mini apps, giving users a new way to discover and interact with third-party content straight from creator videos. As much of a boon to users and creators, the new feature shows TikTok is willing to work with third-parties to add value to its platform.
With the new program, TikTok Jump, creators can add links to their videos leading to additional content built into the app, such as recipes, quizzes, flashcards, movie reviews and beauty tutorials. Several third-party developers have already been testing Jump apps since earlier in the year. Those included in the beta test are Wikipedia, Whisk, Quizlet, Breathwrk, StatMuse and Tabelog. While Wikipedia was one of the first content providers to be featured, TikTok has updated its blog post on the subject to write that neither Wikipedia or its nonprofit parent company the Wikipedia Foundation "collaborated or partnered with TikTok on the Jumps feature."
A TikTok creator could share a video about a new recipe they came across and link directly to that recipe on Whisk, or a yoga instructor could link to breathing exercises on Breathwrk or a creator raving about a new restaurant can share a way to reserve a table on Tablelog.
Those “beta collaborators,” as TikTok calls them, will be joined by BuzzFeed, Jumprope, IRL and Watcha in the coming weeks, and the platform is now calling for more third-party providers to apply to be part of the program. The application process asks for possible use cases of the content and places emphasis on content safety, asking providers if they have any moderation strategies or content that violates the platform’s guidelines. These mini Jump apps can be built using HTML5.