TikTok faces one other sale deadline Saturday, and except a US purchaser intervenes — or President Donald Trump extends the deadline once more — the app might disappear for US customers. If the ban goes into impact, TikTok would not be the one app to vanish: TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, may very well be caught within the crossfire.
Learn extra: A VPN Alone Most likely Will not Bypass TikTok Bans. This is Why
Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, the identical guardian firm that owns TikTok. It is one of many prime Life-style apps in Apple’s App Retailer, and it has greater than 10 million downloads within the Google Play retailer.
“Lemon8 is a life-style neighborhood targeted app powered by TikTok, the place you may uncover and share genuine content material on a wide range of matters comparable to magnificence, vogue, journey, meals, and extra,” the app’s description reads in each shops.
This is what it’s good to find out about Lemon8.
Be aware: I reached out to ByteDance for this story, and the corporate didn’t reply for remark.
What’s Lemon8?
Lemon8 posts can comprise textual content to assist label objects within the publish.
Lemon8 is a video- and photo-sharing platform that eschews the vertical-scrolling format of TikTok in favor of a Pinterest board-style format. However what Lemon8 and TikTok do have in frequent is that each have Following and For You tabs to point out you posts from creators you observe and posts the app thinks you’ll like.
Lemon8’s content material is break up into six matter tabs, plus a seventh tab referred to as All. The opposite tabs are Style, Magnificence, Meals, Wellness, Journey and Residence. These tabs might be discovered throughout the highest of your display screen, and tapping into these tabs exhibits you beneficial and advised posts.
Posts might be swipeable picture collections like in Instagram, or TikTok-style movies. Some creators add textual content to their images to label clothes or a product. Some can even embrace the worth of the merchandise within the textual content.
How is Lemon8 completely different from TikTok and different apps?
Lemon8 is completely different from different apps by way of what’s posted and the way it’s offered.
Lemon8 has a whole lot of influencer adverts and product suggestions. It is tough to inform what’s and is not sponsored content material, and this seems to be the norm throughout the app. TikTok additionally has sponsored content material, however often these are marked as such within the bottom-left nook.
Memes are not catching on in Lemon8.
There aren’t a whole lot of memes or jokes on Lemon8 in comparison with different apps, both. You will discover memes on Lemon8, however varied hashtags related to “memes,” like “funnymemes” and “catmemes,” have fewer than 1 million views (versus a whole lot of thousands and thousands on Instagram). This may very well be as a result of Lemon8 continues to be catching on within the US, however my suspicion is Lemon8 is not meant for memes. It is meant to be extra of a guidebook that can assist you obtain a sure way of life or aesthetic.
There’s additionally a whole lot of writing in Lemon8. For instance, publish captions would possibly embrace directions for a recipe or a deeper breakdown of an outfit. TikTok captions can have helpful info, however these captions are extra about connecting posts to hashtags to get extra views and do not essentially add new info to the TikTok publish. Lemon8 makes use of captions in an analogous method to Instagram posts, however Lemon8 captions have one key distinction from Instagram: templates.
Lemon8 templates will help you rapidly make, or provide you with an thought of what to incorporate in, captions.
Lemon8 permits you to use templates to your posts that can assist you rapidly format and to offer you an thought of what to caption your publish. There are caption templates for vogue, buying finds, magnificence, meals and journey.
Lemon8 jogs my memory of a mashup between the magazines Martha Stewart Residing, Muscle & Health and Journey + Leisure. You will discover some helpful ideas in Lemon8 that can assist you obtain a desired aesthetic or discover some trip inspiration, but it surely’s not clear what’s and is not an advert.
What are folks saying about Lemon8?
Individuals’s response to Lemon8 is seemingly constructive thus far. One TikTok creator posted a video calling Lemon8 “Pinterest, however interactive.” One other stated Lemon8 is a mix of Pinterest, Instagram and TikTok.
Nevertheless, this positivity may very well be artificially inflated. ZDNet studies that many TikTok posts about Lemon8 have described the app with related language, making some consider ByteDance paid these creators.
And a few Lemon8 creators’ claims make this idea sound extra viable. One Lemon8 creator advised Insider that ByteDance paid them to publish on the app. Two different Lemon8 creators confirmed Insider emails that outlined the app’s cost construction.
Who owns Lemon8?
ByteDance, the Chinese language tech firm that owns TikTok, additionally owns Lemon8. In response to ZDNet, ByteDance is positioning Lemon8 to be an Instagram rival as extra customers cease utilizing, or abandon, Meta’s app.
In response to the Wall Road Journal, a leaked inner memo from Meta confirmed that Instagram engagement was declining. ByteDance executives may very well be hoping to capitalize on this by giving Instagram customers an alternate app within the type of Lemon8. And whereas Lemon8 was launched globally in 2020, the app’s latest development would possibly present ByteDance’s gamble is paying off.
Will Lemon8 be banned alongside TikTok?
Since Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, which additionally owns TikTok, it is potential that the app shall be banned alongside TikTok on April 5.
The regulation requiring the sale of TikTok may very well be utilized typically to different apps which are owned and operated by ByteDance and its subsidiaries. When TikTok shutdown operations within the US in January, Lemon8 was shutdown alongside the app. If TikTok shuts down once more, Lemon8 probably will as effectively.
Do you have to obtain Lemon8?
Even with a shutdown looming, Lemon8 is free, so you may obtain and check out the app now earlier than the sale deadline. Simply know the app’s posts resemble educational guides greater than memes to share, and plenty of posts really feel like commercials.
What’s Lemon8’s privateness coverage?
Lemon8’s journey tab can provide you inspiration to your subsequent getaway.
Most of Lemon8’s privateness coverage appears normal for social media apps. It states Lemon8 collects private and site info to give you a greater app expertise. Some collected info consists of your IP tackle and shopping historical past. However a part of the app’s privateness coverage would possibly increase eyebrows.
“The private info we gather from you might be saved on a server situated outdoors of the nation the place you reside,” the coverage reads. The corporate has servers all over the world, based on the coverage, so your info may very well be saved in any of them.
That is completely different from how Lemon8’s sister app TikTok shops some person’s knowledge. The corporate shops US-based person knowledge in Oracle servers. TikTok CEO Shou Chew stated ByteDance workers in China can entry this knowledge, however with “strong cybersecurity controls and authorization approval” overseen by a US-based safety workforce.
For extra on the TikTok ban, here is what to know concerning the Supreme Courtroom’s choice, here is what might occur subsequent and listed below are different apps customers are flocking to.
