TikTok Reportedly Building New U.S. Version Of App Ahead Of Sale

TikTok is reportedly building a new version of its app specifically for the United States. The video sharing platform’s app for American users has a planned launch in U.S. app stores Sept. 5, The Information reported.

This development comes shortly after President Donald Trump said the U.S. had “pretty much” reached a deal for an American company to acquire TikTok’s U.S. assets. The president told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News that the deal is “good for China, and it’s good for us.” He added he is optimistic about the deal even though it will require China’s approval.

“I think I’ll need probably China’s approval. I think President Xi will probably do it,” he said.

In April, an earlier deal that the Trump administration had to finalize TikTok’s sale fell through, reportedly in response to the president’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.

Last month, the president extended the deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets to Sept. 17. It was the third time the president extended the deadline, according to Fox News. (RELATED: Trump Announces What He’ll Do If No TikTok Deal Reached Next Month)

TikTok was required to find an American buyer after the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Joe Biden in April 2024. When the initial nine-month deadline passed, TikTok temporarily stopped operating in the U.S. on Jan. 19. It came back shortly thereafter when Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline to April. He signed another extension in April and another in June.

The bill forcing TikTok to separate from ByteDance was introduced by the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Bipartisan committee members said in a press release that the CCP had no business running a major tech platform with access to the personal data of American citizens.

The committee’s ranking member, Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, said TikTok posed a national security threat “so long as it is owned by ByteDance and thus required to collaborate with the CCP.”  He added that the legislation would protect Americans from the “digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them.”

Then committee chairman, former Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, pointedly told TikTok to “break up with the Chinese Communist Party” or lose access to American social media users.

“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” he said.