After more than 25 days, Apple and Google restored TikTok in the U.S Thrusday evening. Both companies removed the app from the App Store and the Play Store on January 18 in response to a national security law.
Other ByteDance apps such as video editor CapCut and social app Lemon8 were also restored on these app stores. Apple, which published a rare support document detailing these removals, has deleted the support document now.
On January 19, TikTok started restoring services to existing users, but Apple and Google kept the app out of their stores. That meant if you had uninstalled TikTok, you wouldn’t have been able get it. Earlier this month, TikTok urged users on Android to sideload the app via its website.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order right after assuming office to give a 75 day lifeline to the app. Within these 75 days, ByteDance has to sell TikTok to an entity in the U.S. or face a ban.
Trump said last month that he would like the U.S. to have 50% share of TikTok along with other companies through a joint venture. He also inaugrated the U.S. soverign fund that could participate in TikTok’s dealmaking.
Last month, CNBC reported that TikTok’s traffic was restored almost 90% from the pre-ban time according to Cloudflare Radar data. However, rival social networks are trying to bank on this uncertaintly. Both X and Bluesky launched dedicated vertical video feeds while Meta announced a video editing app that would rival Capcut.
According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, TikTok was the second most downloaded app in the country last year with 52 million downloads.