TikTok plans for gaming and games live streaming, including interactive minigames for TikTok LIVE

TikTok is already one of the world’s fastest-growing social media platforms, where it’s even overtaken YouTube on watch time in select markets and sports over 1 billion monthly active users. Presently, the organization is hoping to extend the range of activities its users can do when they tire of flipping through short videos.

TikTok is testing games for the app in Vietnam in front of a “major push” into the space. An organization agent affirmed tests of HTML5 mini-games, saying, “We’re always looking at ways to enrich our platform and regularly test new features and integrations that bring value to our community.”

Today demonstrates the organization is further investing in HTML5 games and has already started tests. However, we understand there might be something else to TikTok’s gaming strategy than web-based gaming. It seems TikTok is likewise working on a LIVE mobile gaming feature that would permit makers to better engage fans while live streaming.

The outlet’s sources show the plan is for ad-supported games that draw from the library of its parent organization, ByteDance, which could boost revenue and increment how much time people spend on the TikTok app — if that is even possible.

TikTok has previously tested somewhere around one in-app mini-game, as it collaborated with Feeding America to make Garden of Good, a FarmVille-like experience where players could earn points and use them to make a gift. It likewise declared a partnership with FarmVille developer Zynga toward the end of last year to make Disco Loco 3D, an HTML5-based endless runner that could work inside the app, however, new reports propose that is the perfect beginning for TikTok’s gaming desires.

The Chinese predecessor to TikTok, Douyin, already features games, and different organizations like Facebook and Netflix have recently made introductions to mobile gaming. TikTok has likewise tested streaming software for games with its Live Studio for PCs and permitted specific makers to add more interactivity by including mini-apps in videos.

The product intelligence firm Watchful, says TikTok is working on various features for live streaming. They incorporate games to assist streamers to engage with viewers, including a Pictionary-like game, a “treasure box” giving experience that gives out coins to random viewers after a set timeframe, and a shopping experience permitting watchers to browse through products from a Livestream.

In front of the Zynga deal, TikTok had likewise currently launched its own game, Garden of Good, built in partnership with nonprofit Feeding America and focused on charitable fundraising. This one felt more like an analysis to check whether TikTok users would play an in-app game.

While still a smaller effort today, gaming could develop to become a significant monetization tool for TikTok, assuming that the games turn out to be ad-supported or later add paid components, like in-app purchases.

Notwithstanding its previously declared efforts to dig into HTML5 games, TechCrunch has likewise learned TikTok is hoping to investigate LIVE games in a different effort.

As indicated by an investigation by mobile product intelligence firm Watchful, situated in Tel Aviv, TikTok is attempting to add minigames to LIVE videos in its app to upgrade the live streaming experience between makers and their fans.

One LIVE game Watchful revealed is called Draw and Guess, which is planned specifically to encourage interaction between makers and watchers. In this Pictionary-like game, players are given words that they then draw on the screen, and viewers attempt to think about the thing they’re drawing. The right guesses are displayed on the screen.

Watchful likewise noticed the mobile gaming feature might permit screen-sharing, so makers could share their screen to watchers in real time, including their camera, audio, notifications, and other alerts. Their games could be displayed in either landscape mode or portrait mode, the firm said.

While today, a handful of reverse engineers publicly share details of unannounced, still-in-development features they find in popular consumer apps, Watchful has productized this type of investigation and improved it with technology. The organization uses a combination of computer vision and flow analysis to identify and emulate app changes. Its differential investigation motor thinks about application versions using real user data and proprietary computer vision algorithms, it says. The studies are likewise supported by the firm’s mobile device labs deployed around the world.

Reached for comment, TikTok had nothing more to share about the LIVE gaming efforts however let us know it was an unrelated development from the HTML5 games had portrayed.

Games aren’t the only way TikTok is hoping to improve the TikTok LIVE Platform.

Watchful additionally flagged one more in-development feature that feels like a cross of a game and a virtual gifting experience. It permits clients to add a “Treasure Box” to LIVE videos which gives out coins after a timer and ultimately depends on a random set of users.

It found TikTok was working on the in-app shopping experience, TikTok Shop, which is offered today in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, mainland China, Hong Kong, and the U.K. Here, TikTok appears to be looking at adding a shopping bag icon to LIVE shopping videos which, when clicked, opens up a window where viewers can browse available products with the option to click to add them to a cart for immediate purchase.