Why Some TikTok Users Are Running to RedNote, Another Chinese Social Media App
TikTok’s future in the US looks more uncertain than ever . With a potential ban just days away, angry TikTok users are looking for alternatives, and not all of them are turning to US platforms like Instagram.
Instead, these users, calling themselves ” TikTok refugees ,” are seeking to tie it to the US government trying to ban their favorite app over national security issues. TikTok’s parent company is ByteDance, based in China. Thus, TikTok refugees are mainly targeting social media platforms that are also run by companies based in China.
An app called RedNote is one of the most prominent options that grabs attention. This may be an understatement: as of this writing, RedNote is the number one app in both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.
What is Rednote?
The Chinese name for RedNote is Xiaohongshu, which translates to “Little Red Book.” (Also the name of the collection of writings of Chinese political revolutionary Mao Zedong .) It is a popular social networking application in its home country, created in 2013 by developer Xingyin Information Technology. It is similar to TikTok, but is not an exact copy of it.
Like TikTok, RedNote posts short videos that you can scroll through endlessly. But in addition to videos, the app also allows you to create collaborative “boards” and even shop the in-app marketplace – although I’m not sure what shipping costs would be when buying used furniture from around the world. After all, it’s a social media experience that the US government probably didn’t expect to become a meeting place for disgruntled Americans.
Of course, the crowd is drawn to RedNote’s TikTok-style short videos. I downloaded the app to see what the hype was all about.
What information does RedNote ask for during installation?
In terms of privacy and security, the app scans your device ID and developer Xingin could potentially use it to track you across other apps and websites. It’s not great, but it’s not unusual either: For context, TikTok also tracks your device ID, as well as your email address and phone number, two data points that RedNote doesn’t track. RedNote also collects other data that is directly related to you, including your purchases, search history, user ID and contacts. Finally, the app receives a range of data that is not directly associated with you, including your advertising data, product interactions, approximate location, product interactions, precise location, physical address, name, phone number, photos or videos, audio data, support information customers, user content, crash data, and performance data.
It’s worth noting again that many apps ask for this kind of data, both related and not related to your identity. It’s your choice what you’re comfortable offering, and you should always take steps to prevent certain data from leaking from your device to the app. For example, you can use a VPN to mask your location and device ID, or disable location settings for an app altogether; create an account through Apple and use Hide My Email to protect your email address from the app; disable access to photos and videos for the application, with the exception of certain images and clips that you choose to share; and block the app from accessing your contacts if you prefer to find your friends there one at a time.
What is it like to use RedNote if you speak English?
When I browse the app, it feels like TikTok meets Instagram Explore. Indeed, RedNote’s main channel is called “Explore” and is a grid of different videos that you can watch. Click one and it will start playing. Scroll down and you can watch another video. If you’ve used a short video platform before, you’ll get the idea pretty quickly. In fact, there is a dedicated Trending tab where you can watch short videos. Of course, there are some unique RedNote features: Pinch your fingers and you clear the user interface to focus on the video. Press and hold and you’ll see a number of additional options, including Auto Scroll if manual scrolling proves too difficult.
In many ways, it’s a short-form video app that anyone who’s watched TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts can quickly understand—perhaps without even reading much of what’s written in it. Not only is the developer of this app based in China, but the main language of the app itself is reportedly Mandarin, meaning that most of the discussion about it is not in English. If you’re like me and don’t speak a word of Chinese, you can miss out on a lot by scrolling through comments and captions in a language you don’t understand.
Of course, there are ways to translate elements of your display, but you might not have to: part of the quirk of so many English-speaking American users flooding the app is that Chinese-speaking users are now also posting in English. Users from both countries have even been messaging and joking with each other, with users from China posting messages in English saying they are glad to see the Americans as their jobs as their “Chinese spies” will be saved . (Others ask Americans for help with English homework .) Overall, users from both countries seem to be having a good time getting to know each other.
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Despite all the buzz this week, RedNote is obviously not nearly as popular as TikTok, even in China: the former has 300 million active users compared to TikTok’s one billion . But if TikTok is banned in the US next week, the app could lose 170 million American users – at least those who don’t use workarounds to keep the app running . It will be interesting to see how RedNote continues to grow, and whether that growth will in turn inspire the US government to try to ban it. If the TikTok ban is successful, it’s not hard to see the RedNote ban becoming a reality as well.