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On Jan. 18, TikTok briefly shut down its services in the U.S. in anticipation of a highly controversial ban scheduled for Jan. 19. However, the company restored access less than 24 hours later, much to the relief of millions of Americans.
TikTok issued a statement thanking President Donald Trump for assuring that no penalties would be imposed on service providers amid the ongoing discussion over the app’s usage in the U.S. “It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States,” the statement read.
U.S. federal law required ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company based in China, to sell the platform or face a ban by Jan. 19, 2025, due to national security and data privacy concerns. After his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order extending the TikTok ban deadline by 75 days, pushing it to April 4. While many were thrilled to continue using the platform, some had already deleted the app ahead of the original deadline and were, and still are, unable to reinstall it on their devices.
When TikTok voluntarily paused its services on Jan. 18, TikTok was also removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play, and despite services returning, TikTok is still absent from the app stores. This also means that users who already have the app wouldn’t be able to install any future updates.
Many TikTok users took to social media to question why the app is still unavailable on the store, especially after the ban deadline was extended, with some tagging TikTok’s U.S. X account, pleading with the company to put it back. Others noted that with the absence of TikTok, the new most downloaded app on the App Store is DeepSeek, a Chinese AI-powered app.
On Jan. 27 Apple said that all apps by ByteDance are no longer available to U.S. users. Apart from TikTok, ByteDance’s other apps include CapCut and Lemon8. They also warned that since users who still have TikTok installed can no longer install new updates, the app might have performance issues and incompatibilities with future iOS and iPadOS versions.
It isn’t known how long users can remain using a stable version of the app. Without bug fixes and performance improvements available to download, the app is more prone to glitches and crashes. Some users have already reported that their algorithms seem to have changed after TikTok resumed services on Jan. 19.
TikTok’s absence is likely due to the potential fines app stores could face while discussions about the platform are ongoing. According to federal law, app stores may be fined up to $5,000 for each user they grant access to TikTok, and with about 170 million users in the U.S., the accumulated penalty could reach hundreds of billions of dollars. And despite Trump’s assurance that service providers won’t face penalties, uncertainty about TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains high. As a result, providers are erring on the side of caution until an official resolution is reached, and it seems it might be a while before we learn whether or not TikTok will be available to download from the app store once again.