Whee is a basic photo-sharing app
Whee is a new social media app brought to you by the creators of TikTok, ByteDance. Like Instagram, you’ll share your photos and have people like, comment on, and share them. The difference is Whee is focused on sharing live moments exclusively with your friends. That means no one can see your content unless you become friends with them. You can add people you already follow from TikTok or search for new people. TikTok will also suggest people you may know to make your task easier.
Whee’s UI is among the simplest you’ll find on any app. There are only three main menus; Inbox, Camera, and Moments. Inbox is as it sounds. It’s where you can have one-on-one conversations with your friends. The camera helps you take pictures, which you can post immediately or save to the in-app gallery. You can’t post pictures from your device’s gallery, which reminds me of the BeReal app where you actually have to be your unfiltered self.
Speaking of filters, you can’t apply them before posting, as well as captions. The most you can do is change your privacy setting to Friends or Only You. The Moments menu is where you’ll see the latest posts from yourself and friends — almost like an Instagram feed. The rest of the app features are basic. You’ll have a profile menu, but you can’t really do much besides change your preferred name, username, and display picture. There’s no field for adding your bio. The settings menu is also bare and offers options for managing your account, privacy, notifications, and language, among other tweaks.
Whee isn’t available in certain regions, US included
X user Artem Russakovskii has confirmed that Whee isn’t available in the USA. But you might be in the other lucky countries where it’s supported. It’s not surprising that ByteDance has kept the app away from Americans, considering the ongoing legal battle for TikTok’s ban.
ByteDance has still refused to give up its precious app. However, The US Court of Appeals has decided to hear arguments from both sides on September 16th. Perhaps, the app’s fate will finally be decided by then. Whee’s features are basic and, frankly, not enough to keep users interested for long. But it’s too early to write it off. After all, the best apps like Instagram once started with lackluster features and grew over time. Hopefully, Whee’ll do the same and show a distinctness from TikTok Notes.
