The updated and increasingly popular ‘Tik Tok’ app, developed by ByteDance, is taking the social media world by storm. New updates to the app now allows users to create and share short lip-sync, comedy and talent videos for others to watch, in hopes these videos will go viral.  

Most ‘Tik Tok’ users first started their journey to stardom with the app “Music.ly.” But, as the app has become more and more popular, ByteDance decided it was time to re-brand and start a newer company that houses other apps such as Heho and Douyin. The newly re-branded app was intended to draw more people to it and bring the application to more users. 

Now, ByteDance allows Tik Tok users and its fan base to create videos to share with their friends. In fact, the app has created a new social media platform that rivals Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.

One of the features on the app is entitled the “for you page,” where the most popular videos are played. Users caption their videos with hashtags such as “#fyp” and “#foryou” for a chance to be featured on the page.

Senior Zoe Hines was recently featured on the ‘for you page’ that featured a video about colleges in Virginia, which was actually a simple parody of a Tik Tok made by someone in Texas.

 “Tik Tok started as a joke for me, but I find myself on the app more than any other app on my phone. I normally stick to dances with my friends, but I decided to try something new one day when I was bored and I ended up with over 1 million views in a week. I love the app and I know a lot of people do too,” Hines said.