After more than 25 days of absence, Apple and Google have returned the TikTok app to their stores in the United States. Both companies removed the app from the App Store and Play Store on January 18, 2025, in response to the National Security Act. This was reported by TechCrunch.
Other ByteDance apps, such as video editor CapCut and social platform Lemon8, have also returned to app stores.
On January 19, 2025, TikTok began to restore services for existing users, but Apple and Google still did not return the app to their stores. This meant that if a user uninstalled TikTok, they could not install it again.
Immediately after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving TikTok 75 days to find a solution. During this time, ByteDance has to sell TikTok to a US company or face a complete ban.
Last month, Trump said that he would like to see the United States get 50% of TikTok through a joint venture with other companies. He also initiated the creation of a US sovereign wealth fund that could participate in negotiations over TikTok.
According to CNBC, TikTok's traffic has almost completely recovered - by 90% from pre-ban levels, according to Cloudflare Radar. However, competitors are trying to capitalize on the situation. X and Bluesky have launched their own vertical video streams, and Meta has announced a new video editor that is supposed to compete with CapCut.
By the way, according to the analytical company Sensor Tower, TikTok was the second most downloaded app in the US last year with 52 million downloads.