A Grownup’s Guide to TikTok Alternatives

Rivals share many of the same features as beleaguered app but face their own obstacles

Edward C. Baig,

Updated January 21, 2025

AARP

Comments

En español

Published January 17, 2025

/ Updated January 21, 2025

Photo Collage: AARP; (Source: Getty Images (3))

In this story

A search for options • Instagram Reels • YouTube Shorts • RedNote • Lemon8 • Clapper

TikTok creators and the millions of diehards who’ve been watching their short-form videos on everything from fashion and cooking advice to all things pop culture are lamenting the uncertain future of their favorite app.

Some U.S. TikTok users may cling to a hope that the app can live on in one form or another in the aftermath of a unanimous Supreme Court decision upholding the law resulting in the ban. TikTok ping-ponged between a shutdown for its U.S. users late Saturday and its restoration midday Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump promised an executive order, which he signed after his inauguration Monday, to temporarily block penalties laid out in the law.

The order calls for a 75-day enforcement delay while the administration considers its options. But flocks of self-named TikTok refugees were seeking fresh social media landings elsewhere before the Jan. 19 deadline.

On Friday, the day of the Supreme Court ruling, and in the days leading up to the decision, the top three free apps listed in both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store were all potential TikTok understudies:

Xiaohongshu, known in the U.S. as RedNote
Lemon8, also Chinese
Clapper: Video, Live, Chat, a U.S.-baked app

Here’s a closer look at TikTok alternatives that may appeal to older adults, including some of its more traditional rivals.

1. Instagram Reels has the content, not the algorithm

Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads, WhatsApp and, yes, Instagram, launched Instagram Reels in 2020 to directly compete against TikTok. It arguably remains the closest of the TikTok copycats. Many TikTok creators that AARP spoke with also have a presence on Instagram Reels.

What’s missing is the powerful, proprietary TikTok algorithm that tends to surface content that users most want to see, critics say.

Creators on Instagram Reels can post and edit videos up to 90 seconds long and apply tools such as augmented reality filters to dress them up. Meta also has launched a somewhat similar product called Facebook Reels, also with 90-second videos.

2. YouTube Shorts turns mainly horizontal platform on its side

Google-owned YouTube is mostly known for longer, landscape video on almost any mainstream topic imaginable, as well as more obscure material. YouTube Shorts is all about brief vertical or square videos that place it in the same competitive arena as TikTok and Reels.

Folks can create up to 3-minute videos on YouTube Shorts, which like Reels also tends to feature content from TikTok creators looking to hedge their bets. It also lacks TikTok’s secret sauce on recommending videos you may want to see.

Creators hoping to make money through Shorts videos must join a YouTube Partner Program and gain 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the past 90 days.

3. Xiaohongshu, aka RedNote, shows off its Chinese roots

This Chinese-owned “lifestyle” platform from Xingpin has been described as a cross between Pinterest and Instagram. It began more as a shopping app back in 2013, but the TikTok crowd has discovered it more recently.

Reuters reported that the app recently gained 700,000 new users in two days. What’s unknown is whether its Chinese roots will subject it to some of the same concerns that have led to TikTok’s ban in the United States.

Meanwhile, a user warning: If you’re going to spend time on RedNote, brush up on your Mandarin because so much content is in that language.

Coincidence? The learning language app Duolingo recently posted on X that it has seen a 216 percent spike in new Mandarin learners in the U.S. compared to the same period a year ago. RedNote’s logo in Apple’s App Store and Google Play displays only Chinese characters.

4. Lemon8 shares Chinese owner with TikTok

Adding Lemon8 – Lifestyle Community to this list seems a little bit dicey if only because China’s ByteDance, TikTok’s parent, is its owner. So its future in this country also seems iffy.

ByteDance also blocked U.S. users from the Lemon8 app late Saturday then restored them Sunday. The law covers all apps owned or provided by ByteDance.

And if you haven’t already fetched it, the Lemon8 app is at least temporarily unavailable in the U.S. app stores. A message in Google Play reads, “Looking for Lemon8? Downloads for this app are paused due to current US legal requirements,” similar to a message on TikTok’s status in the store.

Lemon8 shares several elements in common with TikTok, including Following and For You tabs at the top of the screen. More than likely, you would be following the same content creators you routinely watch on TikTok.

5. Newish Clapper short video app is homegrown

As a Texas-based shortform video social media platform, Clapper doesn’t carry the geopolitical problems that put TikTok in lawmakers’ crosshairs. It has more than a passing resemblance to TikTok.

Last year, its founder, Edison Chen, told the Dallas Observer that he started the company in July 2020 to appeal to an audience older than the teens and twentysomethings that TikTok has corralled.

Posted videos have a 3-minute limit, and the company says it “uses ‘equal opportunity’ algorithms to show ordinary people, real and diverse communities … where everyone can be the heartbeat of your community.” It also features live streaming.

%{postComment}%

The most recent update for this story, originally posted Jan. 17, 2025, reflects the president’s executive order delaying enforcement of the TikTok ban.

Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn; Threads; and X, formerly known as Twitter.