Can You Go Live on Lemon8? Here's How to Navigate the TikTok-Like Social Media App

In the United States, popular app TikTok faced a permanent ban over concerns from Washington that it compromises national security. Although the general population seems to strongly disagree, politicians seemed dead set on banning the app for good. This left users, especially content creators who relied on the app to generate revenue, lost and drifting.

Luckily, a few apps have stepped up to the plate. Most internet denizens are already familiar with Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook. But a Chinese-owned social media called RedNote also rose to the forefront of discourse as people considered alternatives for TikTok. Another app took center stage in the wake of TikTok's downfall: Lemon8. Although it's owned by the same company as TikTok, it's not exactly the same app. So can you go live while using Lemon8? Let's take a look at what the app can and can not do.

When you open Lemon8 for the first time, it's pretty evident that things are a little different from TikTok, but not unrecognizably so. The format also resembles Instagram or RedNote, making it fairly user-friendly and straightforward.

There are many features which we will get to in a minute. But before the ban, there was one feature on TikTok that some people loved and some people hated: the "live" feature. You might be scrolling through videos only to stumble on someone streaming a live video that contained disco shrimp or people cosplaying as NPCs. Or you might come across someone screaming into the microphone repeatedly until their breath ran out. It really was a grab-bag of chaos.

So is it an experience you can expect to repeat with Lemon8? As of January 2025, the answer is no. Although it's likely they will introduce the feature at some point in the future, Lemon8 did not start 2025 off with the ability to go live.

However, there's still plenty that you can do on Lemon8. The app first launched in 2023, and over time rumors have suggested that ByteDance was paying content creators to promote the app to bring them over ahead of the TikTok ban.

What users found when they got to Lemon8 seemed to be an amalgamation of Instagram, TikTok, RedNote, and maybe even a little bit of MySpace. It's customizable, letting users import their TikTok profile but tweak it to their personal preferences, and easy to use. Like TikTok and other popular apps, posting is just a plus-sign button away.

After users click on the plus sign button in the bottom center of the app's display, an Instagram-like interface will pop up, prompting the user to upload videos or photos.

One notable difference is that they offer very basic templates, making it easy to come up with ideas for posting. They did not, however, launch the app with filters or backgrounds.

Like TikTok, the homepage is divided into two tabs: "Following" and "For You."

Users moving over from TikTok will find it very familiar. Just don't expect to go live, at least for now. And if you want to use filters in your uploads, you'll have to outsource the creation or editing to another app and then upload from your camera roll.