TikTok to Shut Down Its Photo Sharing App TikTok Notes, Redirecting Users to Lemon8

TikTok will be shutting down its photo-sharing app, TikTok Notes, on May 8. This service was launched as a test for users in Canada, Australia, and Vietnam in April of last year. Users of TikTok Notes will be redirected to Lemon8, another app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which offers similar features.

The specific reason for the closure of TikTok Notes has not been disclosed by the company. It seems that TikTok did not observe a significant level of engagement with TikTok Notes and has opted to promote Lemon8 instead. According to Sensor Tower, as of December 2024, Lemon8 had reached 12.5 million monthly active users.

TikTok has advised users of TikTok Notes to back up their data and continue sharing photos via Lemon8. The platform claims that Lemon8 has «even more features» compared to TikTok Notes.

Lemon8, a lifestyle app, was launched in Japan in 2020 and later expanded to the United States and Southeast Asian countries. It bears resemblance to Instagram and Pinterest since it enables users to share slideshows and collections of photos while browsing content through feeds. Lemon8 offers creative tools, filters, effects, stickers, text templates, and much more.

TikTok is promoting Lemon8 as an alternative to TikTok Notes, and ByteDance is positioning the app as a counterpart to TikTok due to potential restrictions on the latter in the U.S. In November of last year, the Chinese company enabled users to access Lemon8 directly from their TikTok accounts and facilitate cross-sharing of photo content between the two apps.

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