What the Heck is Lemon8?
If you are anywhere close to influencer adjacent (who isn’t) you may have heard of Lemon8 - a new app that’s seemingly sprung up out of nowhere. I saw a fashion influencer post about how she’s having fun on the app and decided to check out to app for myself to see what the fuss is about.
Trying to predict the “next big thing” is frankly exhausting. Digital marketing best practices change constantly, and even experts know what they know based on data sets that would be laughably limited even 10 years ago (think about how quickly video content took over our lives). I’m honestly not sure whether Lemon8 will pop off or not, but I did a deep dive into what the company is, things the platform does well, and criticisms of the platform.
What is Lemon8?
The first thing I thought when I saw Lemon8’s dashboard was that it seems like a cross between Instagram and Pinterest. Curated photos (often with text or doodles on them) are laid out in overlapping grids, with short headlines visible and more information visible when you click on it.
The photos themselves are quite aesthetic; in addition to augmentation from words and doodles, they’re often edited more than photos I see on Instagram (since many people have moved away from their dependence on the “valencia” filter). With punchy colors and trendy fonts, it’s clear that Lemon8 puts a certain kind of watered-down cool-girl vibe front and center.
Lemon8 is ostensibly a “non-influencing” platform. You can only have 10 hashtags, you cannot tag others in posts, you cannot DM (only comment publicly). You cannot include links in posts (only 1 in your bio). And yet, there are preset templates for listing pros and cons of a purchase, for listing brands included in an outfit, and for writing reviews of items.
In addition to these features, Lemon8 has a chronological timeline for those you follow (a feature many are begging Instagram to bring back). You can also easily search different categories of content, much like with Pinterest.
Where Did Lemon8 Come From?
In a classic case of preying on good intentions, I originally heard rumors that Lemon8 was founded by 2 women of color. Turns out it was fully developed and pushed out by Bytedance - a.k.a. the company that owns TikTok. Not exactly the grassroots movement by two fabulous biracial women I was sold. Technically a company called Heliophilia Pte. owns Lemon8 - but it takes approximately 0.01 seconds to figure out that is a shell owned and operated by Bytedance.
Lemon8 seems to exist to be the American version of Xiaohongshu (Red) - a photo sharing app that has captured a large share of women’s social media use in China the way Instagram has in the US. Xiaohongshu was developed by a woman (Miranda Qu, in partnership with Charlwin Mao). Lemon8 does not seem to have been developed by women (or at least, they were not given credit for it).
Interestingly enough, Lemon8 was released in 2020, but the push to increase its market share in the US began at the end of March 2023. If I were to speculate wildly (which I will), I would guess that growing concerns over TikTok’s possible banning in the United States, coupled with a desire to expand into a market heavily focused on women (Xiaohongshu’s users are 90% women, 76.7% of US Pinterest users are women, and 56% of US Instagram users are women) saw Bytedance leaning more on this app.
What Do We Think of Lemon8?
In a very meta move, much of the popular discourse on Lemon8 comes from within the app itself. Within a week or two of joining the app (I joined the very beginning of April 2023), many people began posting annoyed screeds about how Lemon8 was too perfect - with many people comparing it to Instagram in the pre-reels era.
Because the Internet moves wickedly fast nowadays, this was soon replaced with people aggressively posting “real life” photos - think dirty dishes in sinks, watering a garden in chicken pants.
At first, this criticism seemed grounded purely in aesthetics - very pretty photos immediately ruled the day. But recently it’s become clear that the frustration is more than that.
I defended Lemon8 from criticism purely rooted in aesthetics. “My sister in Christ,” I wrote, ”you are typing that sentiment [that Lemon8 is fake] on a small metal-and-glass box… EVERYTHING WE DO ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND IN ALMOST EVERY SOCIAL CONTEXT IS PERFORMED… [Y]ou will NEVER find the authenticity you crave on this or any app.”
But as I’ve interacted more with the app, it’s clear that ambitions run deep. Despite billing itself as an un-influencing platform, all of the top performing content has the polish of seasoned influencers. My explore feed is constantly clogged with posts like “How to grow on Lemon8,” Follow for Follow threads, and “My Predictions for Lemon8.” It’s been barely a month and the aggressive education has begun.
Ultimately, this was bound to happen. Unlike Pinterest, where individual users remain relatively anonymous, users savvy to the explosive growth of TikTok in 2020 are desperate to be the next Linda Dong or Mikayla Figueroa. Many who have been on Instagram for nearly a decade are watching their follower counts and affiliate commission fall. Of course they’re looking elsewhere.
The most damning criticism of Lemon8 is one I’ve yet to see within the app itself.
Problematic Society = Problematic Content
The first post I saw: a very very thin white woman promoting an outfit for a Taylor Swift concert. I was a brand new user with no posts, following no one. I had outlined minimal preferences for large categories of interests like “travel” and “home.” (I should’ve been suspicious that “books” are not a category).
I’ve joked before about how finding interesting and unique fashion as a short, pale, mid-size person can be tricky. Pinterest fashion is CHOCK full of very thin, very tan blonde women in skinny jeans (Pinterest: why can’t you move on?!). Traditional fashion avenues also center thinness, but also money and impracticality in a way that most normal people cannot engage with. I should not have been surprised that Lemon 8 would struggle with creativity and inclusivity in this regard, but reader, I am a Pollyanna, and therefore I was.
Despite going out of my way early on to follow fat creators, my feed is inundated with weight loss tips. To get the screenshot above, I had to scroll past perhaps 3 dozen images to get a grid of 4 where not one of them was centered on weight loss. Let me be clear: I did not seek out weight loss content. I do see body positive content, but a) I specifically sought it out and b) it’s still outweighed by diet advice. For roughly every 5 pieces of weight loss content, I get 1 of body positivity.
Race is somehow even worse. I found some black creators relatively quickly, and have really enjoyed their content. Yet, despite actively seeking and adding black creators, there are typically none recommended in my main feed. I have seen few visibly Latine creators, and no (visibly) Indigenous, disabled, or AAPI creators in my feed. I did not explicitly state that I was white when I signed up, although given I live in one of the whitest parts of the country, location data probably (correctly) assumed I am white.
None of these problems started with Lemon8, and it is not solely on the shoulders of Lemon8 to fix them. However, it’s still frustrating to see yet another app aggressively defending the status quo. Not only is it exclusionary - it’s boring!
Should You Go on Lemon8?
If you want to go on Lemon8, first, consider your goals. I went in somewhere in between wanting creative experimentation and wanting to grow. I have a blog, alright? I have thoughts and I want to share them with people. I’m not ashamed of that. But to be honest, the creativity and the fun was sapped out of it pretty quickly.
I can only speak for myself here, but it seems like Lemon8 exacerbates our relationship to “content” online. Even in the early days, organic bumbling has been wiped out in favor of people eager to instruct other users on “hacks” and the “right” ways to grow - regardless of what one’s goals for using the app are. I, like many people, often feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information on the Internet right now. By centering text and headlines in a way Instagram and TikTok do not, best practices on Lemon8 demand a certain kind of attention that frankly feels draining.
There are positives to the app. Despite the fact that books are not a category, I see a good amount of book content and neurodivergent content. People are quite eager to comment and discuss on Lemon8. Unlike TikTok, the comments are surprisingly gentle and constructive. Discussion is overwhelmingly kind and thoughtful.
For the most part, my engagement with Lemon8 has tapered off and I can’t say whether I’ll re-engage. If you want to see what the fuss is about - go for it! Just don’t be surprised if you’re met with the same ol’ song and dance.
Are you on Lemon8? Are you thinking about it?
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