5 design reasons why TikTok is beating the crap out of Instagram & YouTube
It’s not the algorithm. And it’s not rocket science, either.
So the US tried to ban TikTok. Teenagers are angry at Meta and YouTube as it turns out they were the ones lobbying for the bill. I’m also angry, but for a different reason
I’m angry because if Tiktok gets banned, we’ll be left with two subpar apps. Instagram and YouTube had years to make their app as good as TikTok, and they completely failed.
In this article, we’ll cover why. The reasons are simple.
1. No dedicated app.
Since their inception, Reels and Shorts have been delegated to a single tab within Instagram and YouTube. I assume this is because product managers didn’t want to dilute their active user base — probably because their bonus depends on these numbers.
That’s a huge mistake. You can’t offer a good experience when you try to cram everything into a tab.
The fact that these companies are trying to compete with what’s arguably the best app in the world with a freaking tab baffles me. And that they wonder why they aren’t winning.
A dedicated app for Reels and Shorts would enable a better experience and give both platforms a fighting chance.
2. Separate Feeds
TikTok has a Following tab, which shows you the content of the people you follow, and a For You tab, which shows you the content from everyone. Reels and Shorts need that too.
Since Facebook’s beginning, Mark Zuckerberg has been adamant about having a single feed. I assume he did it for simplicity — probably in the same spirit as Steve Jobs, who wanted a single button on the iPhone. It’s elegant, right?
Here’s the problem with a single feed: When you see a photo of your pregnant friend next to some article about a train derailment, you start to think, “maybe this isn’t the place to post my photo.”
This is why nobody posts photos on Facebook and Instagram anymore. Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with having a single feed for everything and trying to balance it out has been his biggest mistake on these platforms.
Every social media app should have a distinction between Public and Following. But somehow, only Twitter and TikTok figured it out. Both these apps would be miserable if it wasn’t for this. And so are Reels and Shorts.
3. Allow creators to grow
TikTok has the best content because it’s the best place for people to grow. For example, I’ve posted the same content on Instagram and TikTok. Yet I have 10x the followers on TikTok.
That’s because Instagram still clings to the outdated idea that followers should be valuable. This is why the Follow button is almost invisible on Reels. Meanwhile, on TikTok, the button is red and screaming at you because they want you to follow the people you like.
Shorts is just as bad but for a different reason. They only promote content from people who are already successful on YouTube.
For instance, this video I made got millions of views on TikTok and Reels. On Shorts? Only 47 views. This is an objectively viral video. The fact that the Shorts algorithm couldn’t figure it out is a huge red flag. It means the Shorts algorithm doesn’t encourage discoverability and is missing out on great content. This should be a top priority for the product managers at Shorts.
TikTok’s focus on people’s growth has been a breeding ground for new talent. The app has changed millions of lives by empowering people to discover and share their talent with the world. Losing such a prolific launchpad would be a tragedy, given the current state of Reels and Shorts.
4. Encourage Creativity
TikTok also has the best content is because it’s the only platform that understands the creative process. Everything about it fosters creativity.
One of my favorite creativity books is Steal Like an Artist. In this book, Austin Kleon explains that every creative act is built on the work of previous artists. For example, Star Wars was just a remix of samurais, Flash Gordon, and some obscure french comic book. The best creatives of our times, like Steve Jobs and Picasso, have been adamant about this too.
TikTok fosters creativity with these features:
- Reuse Sounds allow you to reuse someone’s else audio and add your images on top.
- Stitches allow you to add your video after someone else’s.
- Duet allows you to add your video next to someone else’s.
- Video Reply allows you to reply to any comment with a video.
Stealing is not only widespread on TikTok; it’s encouraged.
When a video goes viral, everyone replicates it with these features. They improve on it with their personality and flair. Millions of people doing this generate the most creative content. This is how trends and memes are born and how culture is created.
Meanwhile, these features are inexistent on Shorts and unusable on Reels. I just learned that you could stitch a video on Reels because I googled it for this article. The feature is hidden and unused; it may have been nonexistent.
5. The ✨Community✨
TikTok is the best app because it has the best community.
The features I mentioned above bring another huge benefit: by enabling people to build on each other’s videos, TikTok fosters discussions, arguments, and debates, leading to a vibrant community.
Today, TikTok is the only video platform that captures a feeling of two-way communication.
Meanwhile, watching videos on Reels and Shorts is an incredibly single-sided and lonely experience. It baffles me that neither Reels nor Shorts understand this. It’s their most significant issue.
For instance, Instagram guidance recently came out. They want their creators to use in-app music, and videos that don’t will perform worse. Somehow, the Facebook leadership still seems to think of Reels as a dancing app versus a face-to-face communication medium meant to be the town square — like TikTok.
This is why people are feeling grief over the TikTok ban.
This might sound silly if you don’t use the app. But to put it in perspective: the app has 150 million users in the US. Each user has dozens, if not hundreds, of friends on the app. Banning the app would wreck billions of relationships overnight. This is a big deal, and it would cause immeasurable grief to its users.
I’m available to help.
I’m sharing this because I’m conflicted with the ban. While I see why it makes sense, I worry the US would lose something magical.
I wish Google and Meta could replicate the TikTok magic, but they can’t seem to figure it out. Yet, the reasons are very clear. I’ve shared a sample of them but identified dozens more.
If you work at either of these companies and want to hear them, hit me on LinkedIn. I’m a product designer with ten years of experience in Silicon Valley and a content creator on all these apps. I’d love to jump in and help.
