Lemon8 is the new social media app in town. Content creators on the app are explaining it as a mesh between Instagram, Pinterest, and Canva – and I’d say that’s a good way to break it down.
It has the TikTok style “for you” and “following” pages, with Canva-style photo editing features, a Pinterest-style feel and grid, and a big emphasis on photo sharing like Instagram.
As a Pinterest strategist, I’ve been curious about this potential big competitor and want to share my thoughts on the new app, so far.
So, before we dig into the comparison – what is Lemon8?
It’s described as a “lifestyle community app” in the App Store. It’s made by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance and targets a “youthful community” for discovering inspiring content.
I posted on Lemon8 with my initial thoughts, as you can see on my Lemon8 profile, and wanted to expand to share how I feel it stacks up against Pinterest.
Because this app is brand new, I’m sure a lot will change but as of right now, here are my thoughts on the app as of April 2023.
Review of Lemon8
1. This app already gives me way more of a social vibe than Pinterest and definitely works as a big competitor to Instagram. I’m feeling inspired by the way Lemon8 has brought to life that element of aesthetic + community. You can design content within the app, it is heavy on the photo-sharing element and feels more interactive.
2. It’s also emphasizing, even more, how much keyword research is relevant across social media right now! I teach a lot about keywords and this app is another version of how important it is to make your content searchable.
3. I’m really optimistic about this app’s staying power, especially with seeing so many creators I love to follow on TikTok over here already. It’s still in the very early phases, but I see a lot of potential, especially with the app originating from TikTok’s creators. I have personally found that TikTok has understood the “for you” algorithm much better than Instagram has.
4. I would love to see the categories increase to work for more niches. This has always bugged me about Pinterest because a lot of business owners want to use it too, beyond content creators who are in the fashion, beauty & wellness space.
5. I’m big on branding and finding it hard to do that with the templates & fonts given on the Lemon8 app. I would love to see this app evolve with more Canva-like features and make it easier to use your own branding within the app!
6. I’m also curious to see how long the posts continue to see traction. One of the biggest benefits of Pinterest is that your content can get engagement for months and even years after you post. It’s too soon to tell how that will work on this app.
How Lemon8 compares to Pinterest
While these apps are similar, one of the biggest differences with Pinterest is the lack of social interaction. It has long been known more as a search engine.
Strengths of Pinterest include:
- Saving to boards and being able to organize ideas so efficiently
- The shopping element
- Easy to find what you’re looking for and able to click out to websites
- Better for business owners in driving traffic and sales
Strengths of Lemon8 include:
- Designing pins within the app. Idea Pins have this but it’s so limited
- Community vibes
- Caption-focused (people don’t seem to actually read pin descriptions & they’re often used as a summary for what people can expect when they click through)
Why Pinterest isn’t going anywhere
I often think that competition is a great thing – to help apps evolve and come up with solutions that are designed to benefit the users.
I think Pinterest can learn a few things from the way Lemon8 has set up the app for engagement and community building. And I would love to see Lemon8 include more features from Pinterest – like being able to drive traffic outside the app.
I love the Canva-style design element within Lemon8 and while we’ve seen this with Idea Pins and video-related creation within Reels and TikTok, this feels refreshing and different. It feels playful, which a lot of content creators have been craving.
Regardless of where things head with Lemon8, it’s exciting to see a photo-sharing app give Instagram some competition and I’m hopeful that it goes somewhere.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think about Lemon8? Have you hopped on yet?
