TikTok Develops New App Version Ahead of US Sale

TikTok is developing a new version of its app for American users in advance of the app’s anticipated sale to a group of investors.

This comes with U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that he will begin negotiations with China on Monday or Tuesday on a potential TikTok agreement.

He claimed that the TikTok short-video app “pretty much” has a deal in the US.

The social media app developed by Bytedance, a Chinese internet business, currently plans to shut down its present platform by March 2026.

According to the plan, TikTok has a strategy to release the new app to U.S. app stores on September 5.

President Donald Trump told Fox News last week that a group of “very wealthy people” are interested in purchasing the most popular short-form video platform. This news follows his announcement. POTUS also stated that in the upcoming weeks, he will make the identity of the investors public.

Trump last month gave China-based ByteDance until September 17 to sell out its U.S. assets in TikTok.

The source also stated that although the current app will remain functional until March of next year, users of TikTok will eventually need to download the new app in order to continue using the service, but this could change.

A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by TikTok. Reuters was unable to verify the report right away.

The plan to spin out TikTok’s U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based company that is primarily owned and run by U.S. investors had been in the works earlier this year. After Trump announced hefty taxes on Chinese imports, China said it would not approve it, so that was put on hold.

He added that although the Chinese government would definitely need to approve the purchase, he expected Chinese President Xi Jinping to do so.

According to Trump, the US will most likely need to convince China to approve a deal.

This is the most recent chapter in the lengthy tale of TikTok’s standing in the United States. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld a ban, or sale to U.S. interests, of its company in the United States, which Congress voted into law and former President Joe Biden approved. The day before Trump took office, on January 19, was the legal deadline for the sale or shutdown. But in what many saw as a questionable legal move, Trump quickly stayed the law as one of his first actions after taking office.

At the time, TikTok fell completely out of business in the nation for a very short time before starting up again. The third and most recent extension of Trump’s ban expires on September 17. (His first occurred on January 20th, and his second occurred in April.) Prior to the third extension’s end date, on September 5, the revised app is expected to be available in U.S. app stores.

The social media app said in a statement regarding the most recent extension, “As we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office, we are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform.”

In response to national security concerns and the fear that the Chinese government would mine the data of millions of American consumers which is a practice that has long been common for U.S.-based platforms like Facebook U.S. lawmakers from both parties passed legislation last year that required Bytedance to divest from the platform or else TikTok would be banned from U.S. app stores. Both ByteDance and TikTok contest this.

Due to Trump’s tough trade policies, which included high tariffs on Chinese goods, a possible TikTok agreement became involved in larger tensions with China in recent months. Previously on the verge of a full-scale trade war, the two nations are now in a truce, with the majority of import taxes temporarily reduced while they negotiate a more comprehensive trade agreement.