Amid fears about national security and data protection over a mainstream social media app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, another platform has risen above the surface, gaining a new audience with a significant rise in popularity across the U.S.

Yet, it’s also Chinese.

With the anticipated shutdown of TikTok emerged RedNote, also referred to as Xiaohongshu in Mandarin, a social media platform that catapulted in fame as a result of the almost three million American users who joined in just one day, quadrupling the app’s daily active users.

Junior Danica Glazier, who has been using the app for about a year since her most recent trip to China, expressed that what makes the online experience so outstanding is partly because of the connections that can form.

“It was really unique seeing how people from China and America could interact in a way that hasn’t really been done on that scale before,” she said.

While RedNote remains a popular platform, many Americans quickly returned to TikTok once the temporary ban dissipated within about 14 hours after going into effect at the end of the day on Saturday, Jan. 18.

With the implementation of a law passed last year with a bipartisan majority vote in Congress, one of the five largest social media platforms in the United States faded away before coming back the following day.

“I just went to TikTok out of habit,” said freshman Mia Bellavara, who was playing volleyball during the execution of the ban, and found out when she woke up that the app had gone dark, only to realize after that the app still worked. 

“And I’m like, ‘Oh, this is weird,’” she said.

TikTok was resurrected shortly after President Trump revealed his plan to keep the app running. Insisting he would pause the effects of the ban and simultaneously protect the companies that supported the platform, the app became accessible again on Sunday, Jan. 19.

Despite this, the app has yet to reappear on primary app stores such as the Apple App Store and Google Play after it was removed entirely in adherence to the ban. For new users or those who deleted TikTok, this meant that they’re unable to find or redownload it.

Given President Trump’s executive order from Monday, Jan. 20 — the day of his inauguration — TikTok now has an additional 75 days to sell the platform, otherwise, it will be banned permanently by law.

For Bellavara and many other Americans, RedNote was viewed as the “backup” in the event that TikTok was permanently banned. She learned about the app through TikTok where conversation stirred about a transition, yet after finding that a majority of the interface on RedNote was in Mandarin, she chose not to continue using it after a few days because of the difficulties the language barrier posed for her.

Since then, RedNote has evolved to keep up with the immense flow of American users. 

On Jan. 19, the platform launched an update that allowed users to utilize real-time, AI-powered translations applicable to main factors such as captions and comments on posts. While not only limited to English and Mandarin, this meant that translating back and forth between both languages was a more straightforward process.

Junior Ana Nieto downloaded the app a few weeks ago, before the auto-translation function was released, and mentioned the tensions eased by the update.

According to her, some Chinese users couldn’t find any videos in Mandarin and American users wouldn’t translate their texts manually so that they could understand.

To combat this, Nieto explained how she would translate any of what she posted into Mandarin first. If she commented in English, it would be in response to another English comment.

“It’s not our app,” she said, echoing her sympathy toward the Chinese users who she found were upset as a result of the increasing presence of Western media. 

“We’re visitors there,” she said.

Isaiah Engelen, a sophomore, similarly expressed how it was “ruining the app experience,” specifically for long-time and Mandarin-speaking users of the app. “TikTok was marketed to a more American or Western market, Xiaohongshu was almost entirely Chinese,” he said.

“It didn’t really do anything for us because now we have to curate a new algorithm for ourselves, mostly Western content,” Engelen said. “That’s the main reason people moved to Xiaohongshu.”

For Nieto, it was different.

“At this point, my algorithm is perfectly curated and everything that I want,” she said.

Deciding to remain on RedNote even after TikTok started functioning again, Nieto stated how she preferred the former in part because of the community and the lack of political polarization in comparison. 

More importantly, she vocalized appreciation for the lightheartedness of RedNote, something that she thinks is less frequent on TikTok.

“You’ll be scrolling and you’ll come across the most absurd video known to man,” she said, referring to things such as bizarre memes. “I always feel like I’m in a state of fight or flight when I’m scrolling on TikTok because of how crazy some of the TikToks can be.”

The lack of political content is another key distinction between the two platforms because of the censorship laws in Beijing.

Still, there are those who, like Bellavara, prefer TikTok. 

She appreciates the more accessible interface along with the study hacks and travel tips she finds there. However, her experience using the app only began last June once her parents finally allowed her to download it. Although her desire to have the app started long before that, she remarked how they worried it would negatively impact her mental health.

After the ban, Bellavara had watched various conspiracy theories regarding the downfall of TikTok and how it resurfaced in less than a day.

But when the ban came into effect, she didn’t feel as negatively as others did. Instead, she was curious to see how it could lower her screen time. 

On average, Bellavara uses TikTok for 45 minutes a day, with 15 of those minutes stemming from when she wakes up and lasting until she’s compelled to get ready for the day. 

Meanwhile, Nieto said that her screen time with TikTok has dropped since its return, with RedNote becoming one of her primary sources of entertainment for two to three hours a day. 

Though she acknowledged the possibility of the app getting banned due to national security concerns, she indicated her hopes for it to stay under the radar enough to avoid it being targeted by lawmakers, as she would feel sad to see it go.

Having the opportunity to talk to people on the other side of the world appeals to her. To maintain this enjoyment, she’s considering downloading more apps commonly used in other countries to deepen the experience of connecting with more users outside the scope of the U.S. 

“It’s nice to interact with people that you usually don’t get to,” Nieto said.