RedNote, Flip, Clapper and Likee top the App Store as TikTok returns online

TikTok may be backbut this did not prevent other Chinese competitors from gaining users. In the lead-up to the ban on TikTok – which began on Sunday and lasted for one day – a number of other video apps rose through the rankings and now dominate the App Store’s top charts.

Chinese app RedNote (listed in app stores as Xiaohongshu) became the No. 1 app in the US last week, followed by video apps like Clapper, Flip and others. The following Monday Restore TikTok serviceRedNote maintained its first position in the App Store, after obtaining Attracted About 700,000 new users in the United States.

TikTok users Go to RedNote It was intended to send a signal to US lawmakers and Meta alike that they would rather join another Chinese app similar to TikTok than return to Instagram Reels.

Although TikTok is back online, the app stores It is not yet hosted for download; App marketplaces must still comply with US law, despite assurances from President-elect Trump that he will extend the deadline to ban TikTok.

Instead, the top charts for both app stores continue to reflect the shift to other TikTok alternatives.

In the US Apple App Store, for example, video apps including RedNote, Likee, Clapper and Flip held positions No. 1, 2, 4 and 10 on the overall top charts as of Monday morning. The Favorited application dedicated to live broadcasting comes in fifteenth place.

Social network Bluesky has just added an optional personalized video feed, however, its app has fallen out of the top 10 it occupied last week on the US App Store. It’s No. 13 as of Monday morning on the App Store and No. 15 on Google Play.

However, Bluesky did get a few extra downloads thanks to the TikTok ban, which it has now 28.29 million usersUp from 27.5 million Last week.

according to Estimates from app store information provider AppfiguresAnd RedNote, Flip, and Clapper all saw a huge growth spurt last week from a thousand downloads per day earlier in January to tens of thousands of downloads in the US on Friday.

Meanwhile, RedNote was receiving hundreds of thousands of downloads.

RedNote received 818,000 new installs in the US across the App Store and Google Play during January 2025. Because the app is localized into Mandarin, the language learning app Duolingo also reported a 216% rise in users in the US Trying to learn the language last week.

Currently, it is the #1 app in the US on the US App Store and Google Play, excluding games.

Clapper, a TikTok alternative targeting teens and adults 17 and older, has garnered 646,000 downloads on the App Store and Google Play in the US. On Friday, it added 87,000 new downloads, or 1,030% more than the 7,000 new downloads it saw back on January 1, Appfigures reports. It’s now the #4 app (excluding games) on the US App Store and #2 on Google Play.

Likee, the short video app, is No. 2 on the US App Store and No. 3 on Google Play. It has seen a huge growth spurt, going from 202nd in the US App Store on Saturday to 2nd place by 3am on Sunday, Appfigures says. In total, it has seen 283,000 downloads during January so far. On Google Play, it jumped to No. 8 across both apps and games, on Sunday night and has since dropped to No. 11. It’s currently the No. 3 app (excluding games).

For Android users, short video app, Scoopz, reached the fourth position on Google Play while short drama app ReelShort ranked seventh on the list of top apps on Google Play, excluding games.

Finally, Flip, which focuses on social commerce, grew by 580,000 downloads in January, the data shows. (However, Flip also ran several TikTok ads over the past week, driving these gains.) It ranks 10th in the US App Store and 9th on Google Play’s top lists, excluding games.

Despite many TikTok users indicating they would no longer be using Instagram, the Meta app continued to rank highly on both app stores, including #8 on the US Apple App Store’s Top Apps chart and #5 on Google Play’s Top Apps chart . As of Monday morning.

VPN apps have seen a short boom as well

After the TikTok ban went into effect, US users immediately tried installing VPN apps to get around the restrictions but to no avail. (The TikTok mobile app remained blocked even when using VPNs.)

However, this He drove temporarily Number of new US users of VPN apps like VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy, which grew from app #91 to app #3 within 36 hours. Another app, VPN – Fast VPN Super, rose 155 points during the same period, and Nord VPN reached ninth place after climbing 160 points at the top of the charts.

Other apps that went up hundreds of sites overnight after the ban include X-VPN, Proton VPN, Free VPN .org, and Express VPN.

The App Store charts will likely change again soon as US users realize they can return to TikTok and decide to turn away from at least some of their last fallback options for an alternative.