A bill signed into law in April 2024 gives the federal government the power to ban foreign apps that it thinks are dangerous to national security. This means that the US could be banned from TikTok. The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has to decide if the rule is constitutional before they can decide what to do with TikTok.
Some US users are looking at an app called Lemon8 to see if it can be the “next” TikTok while they wait for what will happen to TikTok. Lemon8 is not a new app; when it came out in the US in 2023, it got millions of users right away. It didn’t get as much attention after that, but now it’s becoming more famous again.
Some users say that Lemon8 is like “Instagram and Pinterest had a baby,” comparing it to Instagram’s focus on photos and Pinterest’s “inspirational” content and themes that look good.
ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok and is based in Beijing, also owns Lemon8. So, if the Supreme Court says it’s legal to ban TikTok, the US government will decide what will happen to Lemon8 as well.
What does Lemon8 mean?
Lemon8 is a social media app that lets you share photos and videos. It doesn’t let you scroll videos vertically like TikTok does, and most of the material made on it is related to a single subject.
Fashion, beauty, food, health, and travel are the most popular themes on the app. There are suggestions, recommendations, “get ready with me” videos, and beautifully put together content under each subject.
On Lemon8, fashion bloggers can “tag” where they bought their clothes and how much they cost. The material made on Lemon8 is most like Instagram in that it tries to get you to buy something that looks like what your favorite influencer is wearing.
“Contrived spontaneity,” or the idea that a perfect moment or picture just happened, is very common on Instagram. More and more people know that most of the material on Instagram has been edited or staged in some way. This has recently made some Instagram users leave the app.
But people who like material that looks good can find it on Lemon8 without having to deal with the problems that some people have with Instagram.
Who owns Lemon8?
ByteDance owns Lemon8. This is the same company that runs TikTok. It’s ByteDance’s attempt to go up against Instagram, which is based in the US and is owned by Meta. Meta is slowly losing favour with users in the United States, who are now looking for options.
But if Lemon8 becomes very famous, it will be in the same danger in the US as its sister app TikTok. People in the US are still looking for an app to use instead of TikTok, and Lemon8 is taking advantage of the excitement.
Does Lemon8 work instead of TikTok?
TikTok and Lemon8 are two very different apps that are used by different groups of people. Before anything else, TikTok is a platform for short videos, and its algorithm is great at showing people the videos they want to see.
Lemon8, on the other hand, is a website that focusses on photos. The app also has a lot of visually appealing lifestyle material, such as travel, fashion, makeup, and skin care. From my experience using both apps, TikTok is better for a wider range of people. On TikTok, anyone can find content and artists that interest them, even if it’s about a specific subject.
Most of Lemon8’s users are young women who create visual blogs with the app. There is nothing there about sports, history, current events, or anything else. I had Lemon8 on my phone for about a week before I decided it wasn’t right for me.
That being said, every app has bugs at first. When it was first made, TikTok was an app for dancing and lip-syncing. But it has changed into a whole new thing over the years. The same thing could happen to Lemon8 if TikTok fails, as long as it doesn’t get banned first.
How many people are on Lemon8?
AP says that Lemon8 has about 1 million active users, which is a lot less than TikTok’s 170 million active users. Lemon8 didn’t have many famous content creators when it first became popular in 2023. This was because those creators were having more success on TikTok and Instagram Reels.
Smaller makers stuck with Lemon8 in the hopes of making money by being the first people to use it, but the app never took off the way they had planned. Lemon8 also doesn’t have an official way to make money, so users and influencers can’t make money from the content they post on the app.
