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’.
Sign-up process 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. Data privacy 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. Comparing RedNote and Instagram’s data collection policies | Photo Credit: Sourced from Google Play and compiled on Canva App experience Think of RedNote as a platform that offers the attractive visuals of Instagram, the topical updates of X, the .