TikTok to Launch New App for US Users in September

[MacRumors]

TikTok will launch a new U.S.-exclusive version of its app on app stores on September 5, as part of an ongoing effort to comply with federal legislation requiring the divestment of its American operations due to national security concerns, The Information reports.

The existing version of TikTok, internally codenamed "M," will be removed from U.S. app stores on the day of the new app's debut, and users will be directed to download the replacement version, internally referred to as "M2."

U.S. TikTok users will need to migrate to the new version in order to maintain access to the platform beyond March 2026. The current app will cease functioning after that date.

Apple does not allow developers to create region-specific forks of apps within a single listing, meaning TikTok is required to distribute "M2" as a distinct bundle identifier under a new App Store entry. The move is unusual for an app of TikTok's scale, especially given its estimated 170 million U.S. users. All user data will reportedly be transferred to U.S.-based infrastructure as part of the switch.

The decision to release a separate app for the United States follows the passage of a law by Congress mandating that Chinese parent company ByteDance either sell its U.S. TikTok business or face a nationwide ban. The U.S. version of the app will then will be managed under the oversight of a U.S.-based ownership group, including Oracle.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: TikTok to Launch New App for US Users in September

 

[winxmac]

Several questions that may get answered by that time:

• Will it get a different app icon to determine that it is the U.S. version of TikTok?
• Are TikTok users outside of U.S.A. able or allowed to switch to the TikTok U.S. app or strictly for those located within U.S.A.?
• Will there be any features or privacy or other functions differences compared to the TikTok app available to the rest of the world?
• Will the total number of TikTok users get affected negatively, meaning decrease the user count?

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

The iPhone 17 Pro Max that I will be buying won’t include the old TikTok App 😭 🫠 because Apple does not let us download old Apps that we have downloaded in the past that got removed from the App Store 😒 I wish Apple allowed us to redownload an App that got removed as long as we had previously downloaded such App in the past.

 

[ThomasJL]

"The REAL reason TikTok was banned (not China)"

 

[tyr2]

I think I’ll wait for the M5 release.

 

[Lionel Messi]

Several questions that may get answered by that time:

• Will it get a different app icon to determine that it is the U.S. version of TikTok?
• Are TikTok users outside of U.S.A. able or allowed to switch to the TikTok U.S. app or strictly for those located within U.S.A.?
• Will there be any features or privacy or other functions differences compared to the TikTok app available to the rest of the world?
• Will the total number of TikTok users get affected negatively, meaning decrease the user count?

I’m not part of TikTok team, but based on what seems like common sense to me:
- n/a
- Likely not. Infrastructure in US is expensive so likely only support US users.
- No
- No, as the app will function together with the global app and the only difference is host location of user data (videos, comments and user info of US users will be in US)

 

[thiscatisfat]

US gets their own brainrot app. They don't want their citizens to have someone else rot their brains

 

[Jeaz]

Will the content be isolated? Meaning you can't watch TikTok original content on US Tiktok and vice versa?

 

[Jashar7]

TikTok will launch a new U.S.-exclusive version of its app on app stores on September 5, as part of an ongoing effort to comply with federal legislation requiring the divestment of its American operations due to national security concerns, The Information reports.

The existing version of TikTok, internally codenamed "M," will be removed from U.S. app stores on the day of the new app's debut, and users will be directed to download the replacement version, internally referred to as "M2."

U.S. TikTok users will need to migrate to the new version in order to maintain access to the platform beyond March 2026. The current app will cease functioning after that date.

Apple does not allow developers to create region-specific forks of apps within a single listing, meaning TikTok is required to distribute "M2" as a distinct bundle identifier under a new App Store entry. The move is unusual for an app of TikTok's scale, especially given its estimated 170 million U.S. users. All user data will reportedly be transferred to U.S.-based infrastructure as part of the switch.

The decision to release a separate app for the United States follows the passage of a law by Congress mandating that Chinese parent company ByteDance either sell its U.S. TikTok business or face a nationwide ban. The U.S. version of the app will then will be managed under the oversight of a U.S.-based ownership group, including Oracle.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: TikTok to Launch New App for US Users in September

Is it gonna be 5 second short form content to really deep fry the attention span?

 

[attila]

Can us outside the US get our own app as well as a guarantee that US intelligence won't be getting involved in our data?

 

[senttoschool]

I never understand why Americans worry that China has their data. What is the Chinese government going to do with your data? Nothing.

But the US government with your data? Man, they'll do a lot. Force US companies to send your data to them. They can persecute you. Discriminate against you.

I'd rather the Chinese get my data. No joke.

 

[k1121j]

It’s going to stink a US only version. No one wants this

 

[uacd]

Is it gonna be 5 second short form content to really deep fry the attention span?

If only. Since Vine isn’t coming back, this could only be a dream

 

[SirRahikkala]

It’s going to stink a US only version. No one wants this

What the consensus seems to be, europeans love the idea not to have US politics and content creators on their algorithm. And nothing prevents non-US people to download US version too since they are different apps.

 

[iZac]

Probably just a shell game to appease those with low attention spans.

If there's no geoblock on 'regular' tiktok I assume a user could just create an Apple account in any other region and continue to use their account there. I mean not that anyone should be using tiktok anyway.

 

[fatTribble]

I never understand why Americans worry that China has their data. What is the Chinese government going to do with your data? Nothing.

But the US government with your data? Man, they'll do a lot. Force US companies to send your data to them. They can persecute you. Discriminate against you.

I'd rather the Chinese get my data. No joke.

Maybe it would be best if no one collected this data.

 

[haemolysis]

I don’t think they should’ve had to do this, and there’s barely any precedent for it: what other foreign apps are not permitted to operate? There’s plenty of other Chinese services.

That said, doing all this… after whining and complaining that it’s ‘just not possible’ to move to US infrastructure… hmm, so it was perfectly possible all along, who would’ve guessed? Perjury!

 

[aperfectcircle]

US gets their own brainrot app. They don't want their citizens to have someone else rot their brains

Honestly, after observing my 12 year old niece over the last month while she stayed with us, and having talked to family who are teachers, TikTok is an absolute cancer on the brain. We’ve had to intervene and put our nieces phone under parental control and limit her to two hours per day as she was spending 6-8 hours every day on it. It’s absolutely affected her attention and focus.

 

[thiscatisfat]

Honestly, after observing my 12 year old niece over the last month while she stayed with us, and having talked to family who are teachers, TikTok is an absolute cancer on the brain. We’ve had to intervene and put our nieces phone under parental control and limit her to two hours per day as she was spending 6-8 hours every day on it. It’s absolutely affected her attention and focus.

We would literally steal the thread on this topic, but yes, science showed what TikTok and short-form content doomscrolling does to an adult brain, let alone a child.

 

[jonnyb098]

Too little too late. The damage has already been done to our youth and China already has all the data. What exactly is a new app on US servers going to do?!

This is strictly theater.

 

[jonnyb098]

Honestly, after observing my 12 year old niece over the last month while she stayed with us, and having talked to family who are teachers, TikTok is an absolute cancer on the brain. We’ve had to intervene and put our nieces phone under parental control and limit her to two hours per day as she was spending 6-8 hours every day on it. It’s absolutely affected her attention and focus.

I literally just had one of our nephews arguing with me over something he saw on tiktok I know is blatantly a lie. But he was totally convinced otherwise.

 

[jonnyb098]

I never understand why Americans worry that China has their data. What is the Chinese government going to do with your data? Nothing.

But the US government with your data? Man, they'll do a lot. Force US companies to send your data to them. They can persecute you. Discriminate against you.

I'd rather the Chinese get my data. No joke.

Did TikTok tell you this? 🤣

 

[aperfectcircle]

I literally just had one of our nephews arguing with me over something he saw on tiktok I know is blatantly a lie. But he was totally convinced otherwise.

It’s so bad. Then again, at the rate of errors I’m seeing in Google’s Gemini AI at the top of my search results, TikTok is almost looking more reliable! We’re doomed.

 

[jonnyb098]

It’s so bad. Then again, at the rate of errors I’m seeing in Google’s Gemini AI at the top of my search results, TikTok is almost looking more reliable! We’re doomed.

Indeed. AI is now getting “rot” due to it relearning bad info.

No one thought any of this through.

 

[Nekronos]

We would literally steal the thread on this topic, but yes, science showed what TikTok and short-form content doomscrolling does to an adult brain, let alone a child.

this is true for smartphones in general due to notification bombardment and social media apps are naturally the worst in this regard, if not tiktok it would be instagram or snapchat, etc.