“Byte” – The new version of TikTok?

TikTok, an online phenomenon of today’s generation. Videos that serve to entertain. A social media platform as well-known as Instagram or Snapchat. 

But since the last weekend of January, January 25/26, 2020 to be precise, it has been getting competition. Because a new app, with striking similarities, is now on the rise to shake up the social media platform market. 

“Byte” is the name of the new app! But, what and who is behind it? Does this new app really represent a competitor to one of the most well-known apps? 

The app appeared practically out of nowhere, but its popularity rose comparatively quickly and unexpectedly. Generally speaking, Byte, like TikTok, is a video platform. That is precisely why it is referred to as the alleged “competition”. 

But what makes “Byte” stand out, what features does it offer that could make it a competitor? The videos on “Byte” have a maximum length of six seconds, which are always played as a loop in an endless loop. Just like TikTok, there is the “stop motion function”. This means that the record button has to be pressed to record a video. If you release it, the recording is paused and resumed by pressing it again. The app’s content is also very reminiscent of TikTok!

But there are one or two differences. For example, there is a “Rebyte function”, with which you can distribute other users’ postings. If you rebyte a clip as a user, it is displayed in the feed of the others. Likewise, there are no filters or extraneous sounds, as is the case with TikTok. This suggests that the app may still be under construction. It is not known whether these two functions will still follow. 

In yet other ways, the two video platforms are enormously similar, even more so than in terms of content and structure. And that means data protection! In the near past, TikTok was repeatedly criticized because they are quite lax about data protection. According to assumptions and research, the situation is not much different with “Byte”. No one is really aware of what users are getting themselves into when they log on to the platform, just like TikTok. 

When you log in to Byte, you automatically disclose your IP address, browsing history and device model! This aspect alone is already extremely critical, but unfortunately that is not all. On top of that, the data that users have given to other social media platforms, such as Instagram or Facebook, is automatically collected by “Byte”. That means in plain language: everything that Facebook knows about you, knows with a registration, also “Byte”!!! Without that you can do anything against it as a user! And not only “Byte”, but also TikTok! 

Now only one question remains: who is behind it? Who developed the new app “Byte”? Well, this question is easy to answer, but that would be too easy. That’s why we’re taking a little jump back to 2013, the year a similar app was launched. To some, the six-second videos may look familiar, and they’re right on the money with their guess! In 2013, in fact, the app “Vine” launched, which subsequently caused a huge hype! The app was then bought up by Twitter and banned from the App Store in 2016 and deleted. The Vine developer was satisfied with this for the time being, but now seemed to be of the opinion that a new edition was necessary and developed “Byte”. So behind this app is none other than the developer of “Vine”!

The conclusion

“Byte” is nothing more than a copy of TikTok, only shorter and without foreign and funny soundtracks, as well as creative filters! Thus, the new video platform has much less to offer and is so far no serious competition! However, since it is possibly still under construction, this can still develop! If you want to register with this app, you have to be aware of what you are revealing about yourself and what data protection risks you are taking!