Lemon8 review: It’s all productivity porn and aesthetics

TikTok launched Lemon8, a Pinterest-meets-Instagram social media platform, in the middle of its ongoing fight to avoid a ban in the U.S. Since it hit app stores in the U.S. and UK in February 2023, millions of people have downloaded it to their phones and cultivated a feed of aesthetically pleasing posts full of productivity tips, morning routines, side hustle advice, and carefully curated, doodle-laden photo dumps. Lemon8 is basically the anti-BeReal — but with the exact same problems.

It’s a new way to blog

Meli Mae, or @meliiimae on Lemon8(opens in a new tab), downloaded the app in late March after seeing a TikTok video about it. She and her friends were looking for a new app to promote their podcast on, so they signed up.

“It took me a while because I got a little intimidated by it because everything was so aesthetically pleasing,” Mae told Mashable. It took her a full week to craft her first post, which she uploaded on April 6. 

Her post was a single image with a six-point caption(opens in a new tab) describing her “big girl realizations” about “what’s finally okay now that I’m in my 30s.” The photo is painstakingly edited to match the soft aesthetic of the app, and the caption is so long that it’s almost reminiscent of a microblog. 

“There’s also that little Tumblr experience where people are bringing microblogging back again,” Mae said. “Which I honestly, personally, love because I love longer posts and writing down my thoughts. It’s one of the greatest features of the app for me. Visually, it’s very [reminiscent of] Pinterest and Instagram, but I think the actual content in itself… the blogging experience is coming back.”

It’s not a TikTok replacement

These kinds of posts are typical for Lemon8. The app allows users to post videos and individual photos without doodles, but it’s clear from the promoted posts that meticulously edited carousels and photos are prioritized by the app’s algorithm. Videos are almost nowhere to be found in the For You feed — a natural decision considering its owner, ByteDance, likely doesn’t want Lemon8 to be a TikTok competitor, but a fascinating one during a time in which every other social media platform is attempting to Pivot To Video. 

Within 48 hours of posting her first image, Mae gained what she considers a strong following. With 768 followers and counting on the app, she says she loves the Lemon8 experience so much that she doesn’t miss Instagram, which she deactivated earlier in the year because it’s “so cringy to post on.” 

“Because people I know in real life follow me [on Instagram],” Mae explained. “But on Lemon8, it’s people that are like-minded but don’t actually know you. So there’s that veil of anonymity. People have the freedom to comment but genuinely, authentically want to get to know you because it’s this new platform. We want to create more of a positive atmosphere.”

Lemon8 arrives amidst a storm of new apps designed to replace Instagram, Facebook, and, yes, even TikTok. Vice’s i-D(opens in a new tab) described these new apps — including Geneva, Diem, Melon, Pineapple, Partiful, Lex, and Somewhere Good — as “saccharinely-positive, non-toxic social media apps for Gen Z.”

But it’s also arriving as lawmakers in more than a dozen countries have implemented various bans of TikTok due to fears that the app is giving user data to the Chinese government, and one U.S. state passed a ban on downloading it. So of course TikTok’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, has now set its focus on a new app for Gen-Z. 

It’s full of aspirational lifestyle content

The app is currently focused on lifestyle and travel content — and productivity porn. The entire platform seems to be aimed at a constant journey of self-improvement and self-optimization, which, to be frank, sucks. The productivity aesthetic tends to be aimed toward young women, driving them to control their diet, exercise, sleep, hygiene, and attitude. It bears reminding, as Mashable has previously reported: Some of the habits these productivity aesthetics push users to emulate actually are good for you. Eating well and exercising and journaling and meditation have all been proven to be effective forms of self-care. But doing so with the intention of increasing your productivity will only lead you deeper into the hole you’re trying to dig yourself out of. 

And attempting to replicate the performative aesthetics of creators who promote aspirational lifestyles that are often not attainable can take a toll on the mental health of users and consumers, with detrimental effects on our psyches.

The For You Page of Lemon8 is swimming with either these kinds of messages or posts about how to post on Lemon8; either harmful or self-serving. This is, of course, my personal For You Page, but it doesn’t match up with the content I’m fed on other apps — including TikTok and Instagram, whose algorithms feed me predominately frog videos at the moment. But these Lemon8 niches might not stay as they are forever. Just look at TikTok, an app that had began with only lip-syncing and dancing that now hosts content across all sectors, from lifestyle to politics to pop culture to news, gaming, and so much more.

“When I first got on [Lemon8] in February, it was mostly surface level content, which, since then, has begun to get more in-depth, more niche content,” Lexi Poer or @strollingsuburbs on Lemon8(opens in a new tab), a content creator with more than 103,000 followers on Instagram(opens in a new tab), told Mashable. 

A deeper community could emerge

There are some complaints on the app, particularly from users who don’t think they’re getting enough engagement on posts, but overall Poer has “really enjoyed” her time on Lemon8. Enjoying the app is pretty consistent with most of the users I’ve spoken with for this piece.

Poer also says there’s an opportunity for a nicer, tighter community on Lemon8, despite the fact that there isn’t any way to DM your mutuals on the app. Instead, you have to comment below someone’s post to start a conversation. I hate this, but Mae loves it — as does Alexa Monet, or @alexamonet on Lemon8(opens in a new tab), a plus-size fashion YouTuber(opens in a new tab). In fact, the very reasons I don’t like Lemon8 are often the driving forces behind why some people love it.

“The comments [on Lemon8 posts] are more conversational, but I don’t know if that’s because people on Instagram don’t feel as comfortable to post [a] longer caption, so it doesn’t really start a conversation,” Monet mused. “But I do feel like on Lemon8, people feel more comfortable actually talking [in the comments]. It’s a deeper conversation.”

Lemon8 is absolutely not an app for me. But — if you like a slower social media experience focused on creative posts, lifestyle content, productivity, the ins-and-outs of social media itself, and blog-like features — it might be an app for you.