With TikTok said to be banned in the U.S. on Jan. 19, there has been lots of discussion about what app will take over. TikTok is a short form content app that includes live streaming and online shop features. It has over 170 million users in the U.S. with thousands of videos made and uploaded every single day. The app is being shut down due to the U.S. government being worried that it may influence Americans with Chinese ideals and policies. With such a huge app shutting down, people are looking for alternatives. These are the four best alternatives that people are looking to switch to after the ban.
Red Note or Xiaohongshu is an app based in China with very similar features to TikTok. The app is made to look like TikTok in order to garner more attention and make the app feel familiar to new users. It is the most downloaded app in the U.S. since Jan. 14. The user base is mostly Chinese with the language and videos all being in Mandarin. The app also utilizes multiple tabs for different types of content a user may want to receive whether it be beauty tips or humor. This gives the user new options and helps create a personalized experience
Lemon8 is a Pinterest style app almost similar to Red Note that includes short-form content just like TikTok but with both pictures and search bars more catered for fashion and tutorials. Lemon8 and TikTok are owned by the same company, ByteDance, and is considered the app that will take over once TikTok is banned. TikTok has a feature showcasing what creators have made accounts on Lemon8 to convince their followers to join too. This would give Lemon8 the edge in gaining more users as they are already connected to TikTok.
Reels is another short-form content platform that is a part of Instagram which has many different aspects. Features such as messaging, stories and a feed of pictures are also included in the app. Before TikTok, Instagram did not even have reels as one of its features. Now, the TikTok-esque feature boasts millions of users a day and is seen as a direct rival to TikTok in the U.S. Reels is very similar to TikTok in the way it looks and feels as you don’t know what type of content you could be seeing as the next video from each scroll is different. You don’t see this with Red Note or Lemon8 as you choose what type of content you want to watch then scroll from there.
YouTube Shorts also has a similar look to TikTok and is an extension of YouTube on the app and website. Creators can post short clips and videos onto the shorts feature as a part of their channel. YouTube Shorts, like Instagram Reels, was made shortly after TikTok was released as a way to compete against the social media giant. It, like Instagram Reels, looks very similar to TikTok as each scroll could lead to a different outcome. The biggest difference between Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts are the algorithms used for each platform. They all use custom algorithms that have been evolving for as long as their websites have been up which make a huge difference in the type of content given to each user.
