TikTok users are looking for a new home. When the US TikTok ban scare sent shockwaves through social media, one app shot straight to the top of the App Store charts: RedNote. Known in China as Xiaohongshu (which means Little Red Book), it already has over 300 million monthly users and blends short videos, photos, shopping, and lifestyle tips into one platform. Here is the full guide: what it is, how to download and set it up, how to switch it to English, how it compares to TikTok, and the honest truth about safety.
The Short Verdict.
RedNote is a legitimate, hugely popular lifestyle app with over 300 million monthly users, and creators genuinely earn from it through brand deals, live commerce, and product sales. There is no per-view payout, and the best earning tools require Chinese ID verification, so international users should see it as a powerful discovery and shopping community first and an income channel second. Keep reading for the exact earning math, the English setup guide, and the catches worth knowing. To be clear about which app this review covers: this is rednote, the international name for Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), by Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., package name com.xingin.xhs on the Google Play Store. RedNote and Xiaohongshu are the same app and share the same accounts and content. If the app on your phone shows a different developer name, it is not the app reviewed here.
Download RedNote from Google Play Store
What Is the RedNote App.
RedNote is the international name for Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media app launched in 2013 by Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu in Shanghai. It began as a small community where Chinese travelers shared product recommendations from their trips abroad. The founders noticed that even people who never traveled were using it to research overseas goods, so they expanded it into a full lifestyle platform.
Today it is a mix of TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest. You get short videos, photo posts, long written reviews, live streaming, and shopping built deep into the app. Instead of TikTok’s full-screen vertical scroll, RedNote shows a grid of posts, so you see several pieces of content at once. The culture leans toward helpful tips, honest product reviews, and everyday lifestyle content rather than viral dance trends.
How We Checked This.
We started with the official record: the Google Play Store listing for rednote (3.8 stars, 10M+ downloads, developer Xingyin Information Technology, last updated October 16, 2026) and the App Store page where it has ranked #1 in Social Networking. Then we read full hands-on guides from working creators, including a 14-minute screen-by-screen posting tutorial by the Hi China channel and a subtitled documentary-style video on the TikTok refugee wave of January 2025. For the earning numbers, we compared creator-industry sources against each other: chinagravy.com, thewechatagency.com, unanswered.io, techstromy.com, hashmeta.com, and epidemicsound.com. Every payout figure in this article comes from those sources, and where only one source reported a number, we say so plainly. We also read Play Store user reviews to capture the real friction points: verification codes, translations, and account restrictions. Nothing here is invented; anything we could not verify is labeled as reported.
RedNote Quick Facts.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| App Name | rednote (Xiaohongshu / Little Red Book) |
| Developer | Xingyin Information Technology, Shanghai |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Play Store Rating | 3.8 stars (~215K reviews) |
| App Store Rating | 4.9 stars (~182.9K reviews), #1 in Social Networking |
| Downloads | 10M+ (Play Store) |
| Monthly Users | 300M+ (mostly China) |
| Category | Social |
| Content Rating | Teen |
| App Size | ~175 MB |
| Last Updated | October 16, 2026 |
How to Download and Set Up RedNote.
Getting the app is simple. On Android, open the Google Play Store, search for “rednote” (package com.xingin.xhs), and tap Install. On iPhone, search “rednote” in the App Store, where it currently ranks #1 in Social Networking.
Signing up is where some users hit trouble. The app usually asks for a phone number and sends a verification code by SMS. A common complaint from international users is that the code never arrives. If that happens to you, try these steps in order: check that your number includes the correct country code, wait a full two minutes before requesting a new code, make sure SMS filtering apps are not blocking it, and try again on a stable Wi-Fi connection instead of mobile data. Some users also report success signing up with an email address where the phone option fails.
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How to Use RedNote in English.
This is the biggest friction point for new international users. RedNote was built for a Chinese audience, so much of the interface and most of the content is in Chinese by default.
To switch the app language, open the app, go to your profile, tap the settings gear, look for the language option, and select English. The menus and buttons will switch over, which makes navigation much easier.
The honest catch is that user content does not translate reliably. Captions and comments written in Chinese often show broken or missing English translations, a frustration many Play Store reviews mention. Following English-speaking creators smooths the experience, but browsing the wider Chinese community will still feel foreign.
Can You Actually Earn Money on RedNote.
Here is the honest picture. RedNote does not pay per view, and there is no creator fund that pays you for going viral. The money on this platform comes from commerce, not views: brands paying for trusted recommendations in a community built around product reviews. That trust dynamic is exactly why brands keep spending here even though the audience is smaller than TikTok's.
| Earning method | How it pays | What is verified |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsored notes via Dandelion | Brands book creators through the official Pugongying/Dandelion marketplace for sponsored image, text, or video notes | The marketplace is the platform's official route; industry guides report deals must be registered there or content risks being throttled |
| Sponsored note rates | Flat fee per note based on followers, engagement, and niche | Industry reports cite a range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of RMB per note; reported, not official |
| Livestream e-commerce | Creators recommend products live and viewers buy in-app | Industry reports cite 5 to 20 percent commissions on sales; top hosts also charge fixed slot fees; reported, not official |
| Virtual gifts on live streams | Viewers send paid gifts during live streams, convertible to real currency | Reported for China-based hosts with 1,000+ followers; hosting requires a valid Chinese ID |
| Affiliate-style promotion | Discount codes and tracked recommendations earn commission on sales | External links cannot be posted on RedNote, so creators use discount codes; reported |
| In-app storefronts | Sell your own products directly inside the app | Requires Chinese ID verification; RedNote takes a cut of sales; reported |
Three catches matter more than the numbers. First, the two strongest earning tools, live hosting and storefronts, require a valid Chinese ID, so most international users can watch but not host. Second, access to the Dandelion brand portal reportedly needs a valid ID and at least 1,000 followers. Third, beginners usually start with product gifting, meaning free products in exchange for posts, not cash. That is still real value if you review products in your niche, but it is not income.
Posting Tips From Creators Who Grew There.
If you plan to post rather than just browse, a few platform-specific habits separate visible posts from invisible ones. The search engine is still optimized for Chinese, so titles, descriptions, and hashtags written in Chinese get discovered far more than English-only posts, a point the Hi China tutorial stresses step by step. One detailed guide notes that the first 20 characters of the title carry the most search weight on the platform, so put your keywords up front. For reaching both audiences, bilingual content works best: add Chinese subtitles to videos and write captions in both languages, advice echoed by English-speaking creators who grew during the refugee wave. The community is wholesome and family-friendly by culture, so overly mature or inappropriate content gets rejected fast. And keep posts genuinely useful. This is a platform where a restaurant review with real prices outperforms a dance trend, so helpful beats flashy.
RedNote vs TikTok: Key Differences.
| Aspect | RedNote | TikTok |
|---|---|---|
| Content mix | Short video, photos, long text, shopping | Short video first |
| Layout | Grid of posts, several visible at once | Full-screen vertical scroll |
| Roots | Product tips and shopping community | Entertainment and viral trends |
| Shopping | Deep in-app e-commerce built in | TikTok Shop, newer add-on |
| Language | Primarily Chinese, partial English | Fully localized worldwide |
| User base | 300M+ monthly, mostly China | 1B+ monthly, global |
| Algorithm | Interest-based recommendations | Interest-based For You Page |
The practical difference is the vibe. TikTok rewards fast, punchy entertainment. RedNote rewards useful content: a restaurant review, a skincare routine that actually works, a travel itinerary with real prices. If you like learning things from social media rather than just scrolling for laughs, the format may suit you.
Red Flags Worth Knowing.
- It is Chinese-owned, so it sits in the same national-security concern class as TikTok. If you are leaving TikTok because you fear a US ban on Chinese-owned apps, RedNote does not solve that problem and could face the same treatment.
- The Play Store listing shows the app collects location, personal info, and seven other data types. TechRadar has noted there is no real effort to shield user data from the Chinese government, which by law has access to data held by companies operating inside China.
- The earning features have a Chinese ID wall. Live hosting, storefronts, and reportedly the Dandelion brand portal all require Chinese ID verification, which locks most international users out of the strongest income tools.
- Verification codes often never arrive for international phone numbers. This is one of the most repeated complaints in Play Store reviews, and it stops some users at the signup screen itself.
- English translations are unreliable. Captions and comments written in Chinese frequently show broken or missing translations, and while the app has added auto-translation prompts, coverage is still partial.
- Users report accounts restricted "for no reason" with no real appeal path. Keep your content clean and avoid anything that looks like spam or unreported advertising.
What Users Are Saying.
Pocket-lint's hands-on test, titled "Is RedNote really a TikTok alternative? I tried it to find out," walks through the full setup and concludes the app feels like TikTok with Instagram and Pinterest features mixed in, while noting the video-editing tools are minimal compared to TikTok's. On the Play Store, international reviewers split between fascination and frustration: fascination at the genuinely useful review culture, frustration at verification codes that never arrive and translations that garble the captions they most want to read. The January 2025 refugee wave itself became the story, documented in a widely shared subtitled video showing American and Chinese users meeting on the platform for the first time, with the company reportedly surprised by the surge and rushing to add English support. TechRadar captured the irony in a headline: TikTok's imminent ban pushing people to RedNote, another Chinese app.
Who Should Use It, and Who Should Skip It.
RedNote is a great fit if you research products before buying, plan trips, or enjoy learning practical things from social media. Travelers heading to China get particular value, since the app works there without a VPN and holds the deepest pool of local recommendations anywhere. Chinese-speaking users get the full experience with none of the friction. Skip it, or adjust your expectations, if you want a one-to-one TikTok replacement for viral entertainment with a global English-speaking community, because the culture here is helpful reviews, not viral dances. Creators should also know the income ceiling without a Chinese ID: brand deals and discount-code affiliates are open to you, but live hosting and storefronts are not.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Can you earn money on RedNote?
Yes, through brand deals, livestream commerce, virtual gifts, affiliate-style discount codes, and in-app storefronts. There is no per-view payout, and the strongest tools (live hosting, storefronts) require Chinese ID verification.
How much do RedNote creators make?
There is no official published rate. Industry reports cite sponsored notes ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of RMB per note, and livestream commissions of 5 to 20 percent, depending on followers, engagement, and niche. Treat all figures as reported, not guaranteed.
Is RedNote the same as Xiaohongshu? How do I know I have the official app?
Yes, they are the same platform sharing accounts and content; RedNote is the international name and Xiaohongshu the Chinese one. The official app is published by Xingyin Information Technology (Shanghai), package com.xingin.xhs on Google Play. A different developer name means a different app.
Can I use RedNote fully in English?
Partly. You can switch the interface to English in Profile, Settings, General, Language, and the app offers auto-translation prompts. But user-written captions and comments in Chinese still translate unreliably, so browsing the wider community feels foreign without some Chinese.
Will RedNote be banned like TikTok?
It could be. It is owned by a Shanghai company and sits in the same concern class as TikTok, so anyone moving to RedNote to escape a ban on Chinese-owned apps should know the risk follows them.
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