TikTok is facing a ban in the United States, so it has quietly released a new app on the Google App Store. It’s Whee, a social media app that looks similar to Instagram.
Artem Russakovskii, the founder of Android news website Android Police, was one of the first to notice it. He posted on X that TikTok seems to be testing a new app called Whee.
READ: Potential impacts of a TikTok ban
More importantly, Russakovskii mentioned that “it is not available in the US, but it is live in over a dozen countries.”
What do ‘Whee’ know about TikTok’s new app?
Searching “Whee” on the Google Play Store reveals the new app under TikTok. It says it keeps you “connected with your close friends through life’s spontaneous moments.”
The app’s page shows a few screenshots revealing its design. You’ll notice that the user interface looks like Instagram.
For example, the posts seem to be reminiscent of IG’s aesthetic, complete with the heart icon for liking content. Also, Whee lets you edit images with in-app filters and other options.
Surprisingly, TikTok hasn’t released an article or more details about this social media network at the time of writing.
What’s happening to the TikTok ban?
Statista says the United States is TikTok’s second-largest audience with roughly 121,520,000 users as of April 2024. However, the US might ban the app soon.
On April 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest the app.
News Nation says the version the House of Representatives received in March gave ByteDance six months to sell TikTok to the United States.
However, the version Biden signed extended that duration to nine months. If the sale is in progress, ByteDance gets another three months to complete it, pushing that period to April. In response, TikTok creators filed a lawsuit which stated:
“The government cannot ban a medium for communication because it believes that medium is used to transmit foreign ‘propaganda’ or other protected content.”
“Nor does the government have any actual, non-speculative evidence that banning TikTok in its current form enhances Americans’ data security, or that its ban is narrowly tailored to accomplish that objective.”
There weren’t new updates on the TikTok ban at the time of writing. Surprisingly, TikTok quietly released the Whee app during its legal battle. Filipinos may download and install the Whee app for free on the Google Play Store.