With a possible TikTok ban just days away, many U.S. users are looking for alternative social media platforms to help them keep up with pop culture or provide the type of entertaining videos that popularized the short-form video app.
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Jan. 19 unless it's sold by its China-based parent company, ByteDance. The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed to save the platform and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has signaled it won't enforce the law beginning Sunday, his final full day in office.
TikTok has more than 170 million users in the U.S., and if it does get banned, it's not clear which competitors will benefit the most. Some experts think established social media platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, could see the biggest influx of users. But some users are looking for something different and could turn to other apps.
Here are the different alternatives and what to know about them:
Xiaohongshu, or ''RedNote''
Recently, some U.S. TikTok users have flocked to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu in protest of the looming ban. Like TikTok, Xiaohongshu, which in English means ''Little Red Book,'' combines e-commerce and short-form videos.
The app has gained traction in China and other regions with a Chinese diaspora — such as Malaysia and Taiwan — racking up 300 million monthly active users, a majority of whom are young women who use it as a de-facto search engine for product, travel and restaurant recommendations, as well as makeup and skincare tutorials.
On Tuesday, the Xiaohongshu, called ''RedNote'' by American users and on some app stores, was the top downloaded free app in Apple's U.S. app store.