Joining RedNote Might Seem Appealing, but Here's How to Cancel If You Want

The rumors that TikTok might get banned have led to a flood of downloads for Xiaohongshu, a Chinese app that has many of the same capabilities and has become known as RedNote in the U.S. The app became the most downloaded int the country the week leading up to Jan. 19, when TikTok is expected to be banned.

As people continue to join the app, though, some are realizing that it might not be exactly what they were looking for. At this point, it's still mostly in Mandarin, and it also was experiencing technical difficulties that were connected to the flood of downloads. If you're one of the users feeling regret about signing up, here's how you can delete your account.

The process for canceling your RedNote account is, thankfully, pretty straightforward. Here's how:

1. Open the app.
2. Click on the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner.
3. Go to settings at the bottom right of the menu screen.
4. Open Account Security at the top of the Settings page.
5. At the bottom of the Account Security screen, click Account Cancellation.
6. You will then be asked to submit a verification code.
7. When you hit a screen filled with Mandarin, click the checkmark at the bottom and then the red button.
8. You will then hit another screen asking you your reason for leaving in Mandarin. Click any reason and again hit the red button.

Although the process involves a number of steps and a few screens in Mandarin, it is thankfully relatively straightforward. Once you've canceled your account, you can always sign up again.

You might have decided to cancel, though, because you didn't like the app or because you were actually worried about the influence of the Chinese government.

While account cancellation is the most formal way to sever your ties with a social media platform, there are also quieter ways to quit apps like RedNote. If you simply delete the app or stop using it, you're effectively canceling your account, even if it technically still exists inside of the platform. Still, the best and cleanest solution is undoubtedly to delete the account completely.

RedNote has emerged in part because many are worried that TikTok is going to get banned in the U.S. The irony is that TikTok was banned over concerns that the company, which is owned by the Chinese corporation ByteDance, could be influenced by the Chinese government to hand over American user data or to push propaganda through the app.

Instead of convincing Americans to use social media apps that were built in the U.S., though, what seems to have happened is that users have fled one Chinese-owned app in favor of another. The government could ban RedNote, too, but it might be a little bit like whack-a-mole to prevent Americans from using technology they clearly want to use. RedNote might not be for everyone, but it's clearly for enough people to raise the same concerns that some had over TikTok.