Over the years, TikTok has become a viral social media platform, making its way into about 80 million American phones alone. With its popularity, other apps have tried to replicate it, including the most notable, Instagram Reels.

The rivalry between the two platforms has recently become more intense as numerous people, such as Lynsey Cagle (12), refuse to download TikTok and exclusively watch Reels.

“I feel like I will never download TikTok,” Cagle said. “There’s more variety on Reels, and I can see different things at different times in the same app.”

In late 2017, the short-form mobile video app, Musical.ly, was purchased by ByteDance and a year later became what we know as TikTok. Maddison Mudd (10) believes a similar scenario could occur for Instagram’s replication.

“I think all of the videos changed [when Musical.ly switched to TikTok] because they stopped singing and being cringy,” Mudd said. “Now it’s just funny, and I think that it could potentially happen to Reels.”

Following TikTok’s rebranding, the app took a while to pick up steam. Cagle didn’t foresee the app going very far.

“When Musical.ly became TikTok, I thought it was really weird, and I didn’t think it was going to last,” Cagle said, “especially since Musical.ly didn’t last that long.”

After some adjustment from the public, the app gained popularity and now has other social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat and Netflix trying to replicate the short-form video app. The only one that has seemed to thrive, though, is Instagram Reels.

“When Reels came out, I thought it was weird and that it would just turn into TikTok,” Cagle said, “but then I actually liked it.”

Some avid TikTok users like Mudd, however, only see the recreations as copies of the original.

“[When Reels debuted] I thought it was a rip off of what TikTok was,” Mudd said.

Although TikTok users mostly stayed loyal to their platform, Reels gained most of its popularity from individuals who never had the original, like Haley Hamilton (10).

“My parents didn’t want me to have TikTok,” Hamilton said, “so I expected [Reels] to gain as much popularity as it has because there are a lot of people that don’t have [TikTok].”

The two apps have very similar interfaces. Users can scroll from video to video, like, comment and follow their favorite creators.

“I think there’s a big competition between the two because they are really similar to each other,” Cagle said.

While the apps have similarities, their differences have caused the most conflict. Hamilton sees major discrepancies in the types of content.

“I feel like there’s more dancing on TikTok,” Hamilton said. “There’s no dancing on Reels, and if they do, it’s not good.”

On the other end, Reels has been discredited for being behind on current trends.

“I don’t think Reels keeps super up to date,” Cagle said. “Especially when hearing from friends that the thing on a Reel I saw had already come and gone.”

As the platforms continue updating, their competition will most likely grow as well. Each app has its pros and cons and according to Mudd, it depends on the individual’s personal choice.

“I think there’s such a rivalry between the two apps because they both do the same thing,” Mudd said. “People just have their preferences.”