According to the company, users would be able to access Lemon8, ByteDance's new social media app, directly with a TikTok account. Users will be able to share photos with much easier integration, and cross-share photo content both in the applications, says ByteDance.

Lemon8 will be a separate app but both platforms will share a single user login; that is, a single account will be able to log in seamlessly to both.

Lemon8 was launched in Japan in 2020 and has been expanding the reach of its platform across markets in the U.S. as well as Southeast Asia. The service is somewhat similar to Instagram and Pinterest in that it allows users to share slideshows, photo collections, and follow content using "Following" and "For You" feeds. Lemon8 offers its users creative tools, filters, effects, stickers, text templates, and more.

We continue to innovate and evolve the platform to best serve creators-at TikTok. The integration of Lemon8 and other photo-sharing channels speaks directly to our commitment to advancing the creator experience. We believe that these new tools will inspire greater creativity and community-building, benefiting everyone involved, the company said.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, however-the service was reported in TechCrunch back in August 2023 to be working on a Lemon8 integration.

The feature comes as TikTok is facing a ban in the United States. ByteDance is pushing Lemon8 as a sister app to TikTok, possibly as a way to move creators onto the new platform without having to get them to sign up for it separately.

But by taking this decision, other ByteDance's apps like Lemon8 will also be collateral damage. The reason lawmakers are so vocal about TikTok is that it has been owned by a Chinese entity.

Of course, the fact that Donald Trump was elected recently may alter the fate of TikTok. During his first term, in fact, it was actually he who made calls to ban the app, but his 2024 presidential candidate expressed a different kind of concern over the ban: that it would be at Meta's benefit. He even told voters to vote for him if they did not want the app banned.

The integration also comes as TikTok has been embracing photo content, even though it originally became popular with the short-video format. It added the option for users to include photos in 2022. The company has begun testing a dedicated photo-sharing app called TikTok Notes this year.