RedNote App Review | Can this Chinese app replace TikTok?

RedNote is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store with over 10 million downloads in the former.

As TikTok’s life hangs in the balance, users are scrambling to find instant entertainment alternatives in unknown corners of the internet. While Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts have kept their login pages open for TikTok refugees, another contender has risen: Chinese XiaoHongShu.

Here’s what we think about the app that literally means ‘Small Red Book’.

RedNote is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store with over 10 million downloads in the former. The sign-up process is slightly complicated as the app is meant for use within China, so sourcing the OTP message and creating an account requires a few attempts. In addition, most profile creation options were in Chinese, so without knowledge about the language, it is difficult to make full customisation options immediately. Despite these hiccups, getting started and customising feeds was simple enough, and we quickly began interacting with the app’s more native users.

While much ado has been made of hypothetical Chinese spies stealing American users’ data, a cursory glance at the data privacy information for RedNote on the Google Play Store shows that the Chinese social media app collects far less data than Meta’s Instagram.

Think of RedNote as a platform that offers the attractive visuals of Instagram, the topical updates of X, the shopping experience of Amazon, and even some Google Search functions. Rather than seeing RedNote as a basic TikTok clone, Chinese users have explained that new users can do anything here from shopping for products and looking up hotel/event reviews to joining hobby group chats and launching polls.

Tapping the ‘Translate’ button under posts and comments will be a major activity for foreign users, but many RedNote users kindly upload bilingual captions, graphics, comments, or even robotic voiceovers to aid their non-Chinese audience.

The atmosphere of the app itself is charged, like watching two seas rushing to meet each other, as Chinese users and American users (who are comically called ‘TikTok refugees’) introduce themselves, exchange their views on each other’s governments, and share travel tips for their respective countries. They post pictures of pets, school lunches, nearby views, and other instances of daily life. Americans are trying out goji berries, warm footbaths before bed, and drinking hot water, while Chinese users request homework help, practice their English, and marvel at their international peers’ BMI.