New TikTok app may soon launch in the US | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The cat-and-mouse game between TikTok and the U.S. seems never-ending after so many extensions.

With ByteDance’s new deadline being September 17, its clock is ticking again to either find a buyer or disappear from phones all over the U.S.

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However, the Chinese-based company may have a new trick up its sleeve, as it has shown no desire to sell its viral app to any U.S. entity, despite having millions of wealthy buyers ready to acquire it.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, TikTok is a short-form video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Launching in 2016, it quickly rose to popularity, eventually becoming one of the most-downloaded apps in the U.S. by 2018.

TikTok may soon launch a new app in the U.S.

Image Source&colon; Matt Cardy/Getty Images

U.S. government vs. TikTok: a never-ending feud

The ongoing feud between the U.S. government and ByteDance began in 2020, when President Donald Trump proposed the first ban on TikTok in the U.S., claiming it threatened national security.

Ever since, the U.S. government has persistently signed multiple proposals and laws to ban TikTok nationwide.

In April 2024, former President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company by January 19, 2025, or the app would be shut down.

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing TikTok’s service to be restored only a few hours after the ban began, effectively delaying it.

From that day on, TikTok-addicted Americans have been teased with multiple deadlines that always result in an extension.

A new TikTok app might be coming to the U.S. very soon

Like its American users, ByteDance looks to have had enough of the teases because it has reportedly been preparing to launch a new U.S. TikTok app over the last few months, as first reported by The Information.

This new app will replicate the original version but have an algorithm and data system separate from its global one.

Although the exact date of its supposed launch is unknown, the existing TikTok app will be removed from all app stores the same day the new app launches in the U.S. Still, Americans who already have the existing version pre-downloaded may continue using it until March 2026.

But how can ByteDance launch a new app in the U.S. when the government has been trying to ban TikTok nationwide?

The U.S. government’s problem with TikTok lies in its algorithm and possession of shared user data, as it believes it poses a national security threat. So if ByteDance wants to comply with the law, it must separate U.S. users from the rest of its data.

Many can argue that the Trump administration hasn’t complied with its own law, either, because the TikTok ban has been delayed three times thus far when the law only offered a one-time 90-day extension to allow extra room for the potential sale deal to close.

Although a new version of TikTok may soon launch in the U.S., this doesn’t guarantee it will have the same success or virality as the global version.

Because it is a replica, some content will carry over to the new app, but the extent of it remains unknown.

This could mean American users’ previous followers will not be transferred into the new U.S. version of TikTok.