Snapchat adds new TikTok feature as Chinese app risks being BANNED forever
SNAPCHAT is set to introduce a TikTok-style feature that will let you add popular music to your recorded videos.
This announcement follows US President Donald Trump threatening to ban the app in the country.
Snap has said the music feature will be coming to English-language users later this year.
It will be rolling out in New Zealand and Australia from today.
The feature won't make Snapchat exactly like TikTok as there's been no mention of adding a feed of the videos set to music.
You also won't be able to search for videos set to the same song.
Snap has said the aim is to share the musical content with your “real friends.”
The feature comes with a wide range of music from Warner Music Group, Universal Music Publishing Group, Merlin, and others.
Snap will show a song's title and artist at the bottom of videos that include it.
There will also be links to listen to the song on your preferred streaming platform.
This is a feature that should appeal to music labels.
Instagram is another popular app said to be working on a TikTok competitor.
It's still possible that Trump will decide to ban TikTok over national security concerns.
He's reportedly given Microsoft 45 days to try and secure a deal and buy the app, according to Reuters.
It would give Microsoft a better chance of competing with major social media rivals, in particular Facebook.
Trump previously dismissed a potential sale of TikTok to Microsoft.
But Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Trump over the weekend, and later said the firm was continuing discussions to acquire TikTok.
Microsoft now has until September 15 to strike a deal with ByteDance, the Chinese social media giant that owns TikTok.
The deadline is being imposed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which regulates international deals based on security risks.
President Trump is expected to make a decision on banning TikTok soon as White House advisor Peter Navarro called the social app a “national security threat”.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson with Donald Trump after allowing TikTok to build a London HQ.
TIKTOK: A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE WORLD'S MOST DOWNLOADED APP
TikTok lets users create and share short videos with music and camera effects.
It is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, founded by the entrepreneur Zhang Yiming.
The $75 billion conglomerate acquired the Musical.ly app in 2017 and merged it with TikTok, bringing millions of new users.
It is the world’s most downloaded iPhone app – with around 800 million active users across the globe, according to data from Wallaroo Media.
Facebook launched a competitor app called Lasso but recently decided to shut it down.
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In other news, Netflix has added new controls that let users speed up or slow down the pace of their favourite shows.
WhatsApp is working on a new feature that could stop you receiving annoying notifications.
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And, Microsoft may still go ahead with a mega-acquisition of Chinese-owner social media app TikTok.
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