TikTok Launches Photo Sharing Integration with Lemon8

TikTok launches integration with Lemon8, ByteDance's newer social media platform, making photo sharing more feasible between the two.

TikTok has announced integration with parent company ByteDance's newer social app, Lemon8, enabling photo sharing between the two, the company revealed on Tuesday (November 12). The two platforms have been working on integration since at least August 2023.

ByteDance says this integration will make photo sharing more feasible and give creators the ability to cross-share photos between the two platforms. Although Lemon8 will remain a separate app, the two platforms will share a unified user login, so creators can use one account to log into both.

Lemon8 launched in Japan in 2020 and expanded to other markets, including the US and Southeast Asiashortly after. The app is meant to be a mixture of Instagram and Pinterest, enabling users to share slideshows, photo collections, and browse content through their “Following” and “For You” feeds. The platform offers tools like filters, effects, stickers, text templates, and more to encourage creativity.

“At TikTok, we are committed to continuously evolving our platform to better serve our creators,” the company said. “The integration of Lemon8 and other photo-sharing channels is a testament to our commitment to enhancing creators' experience. We believe these new tools will inspire greater creativity and community-building, benefitting everyone involved.”

The integration arrives as TikTok is facing a potential ban in the United States. ByteDance has been pushing Lemon8 as a sister app to TikTok, potentially to move creators there without having to make them sign up for a new account.

But could Lemon8 get tangled up in the TikTok ban? Since the main sticking point for lawmakers is its Chinese ownership under ByteDance, that seems likely.

Still, the recent election of Donald Trump could change things, even though Trump was the first to initiate calls to ban the platform during his first term. Now, he is concerned that a TikTok ban would benefit Facebook parent Meta, and told voters to elect him if they wanted to save TikTok.