A new version of TikTok is expected to launch in the United States on Sept. 5, 2025, according to The Verge.
TikTok’s staff is reportedly working on the separate app, internally dubbed “M2,” which succeeds the current version known as “M.”
The original TikTok app will be removed from app stores once M2 launches, and it is expected to stop functioning entirely by March 2026.
Reports of the new TikTok app comes days after President Donald Trump said the U.S. “pretty much has a deal” for an American company to acquire TikTok, The New York Times reported.
“We’re going to start Monday or Tuesday talking to China,” Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One on Friday, July 4. “We think we probably have to get it approved by China. Not definitely, but probably.”
He added, “I think the deal is good for China, and it’s good for us. It’s money, it’s a lot of money.”
Though no company has been named, Trump mentioned, per The Verve, that it would be a group of “Non-Chinese” investors with ByteDance maintaining a minority stake in TikTok. He had previously shown support of Oracle taking on TikTok operations, according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2020, Oracle became the Chinese company’s technology partner for its U.S. operations, handling data security and storage.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, in January, the Supreme Court upheld a law signed by former President Joe Biden on April 24, 2024, requiring TikTok’s Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform within a year or face a nationwide ban. The U.S. government has cited national security concerns over the app, particularly China’s potential access to the private data of an estimated 170 million American users.
Despite interest from potential buyers, including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian Sr. and Amazon, ByteDance has shown no willingness to sell.
Trump, who returned for his second term in office on Jan. 20, 2025, extended the sale deadline twice — first in January and again in April — granting ByteDance two 75-day extensions to finalize a deal.
TikTok released a statement on June 19, 2025, thanking President Trump after he granted a third 90-day extension, pushing the new deadline to Sept. 17, 2025.
“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 as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s office,” the statement said.
Any deal involving TikTok would require approval from the Chinese government. However, China has indicated it would not approve such a sale, especially following Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Chinese goods, per The Verge.
It’s also unclear whether a purchase deal would meet the requirements Congress set for the TikTok sale, as ByteDance has stood firm, stating it would not share the app’s algorithm with a U.S. buyer, per The New York Times.
