Twenty-six days after it was banished from US app stores, TikTok has returned to the iOS App Store and Google Play store. Apple and Google brought back the Chinese-owned video app after receiving a letter from US attorney general Pam Bondi assuring the companies they would not be fined for hosting it, Bloomberg first reported Thursday.
Google confirmed to WIRED it has brought TikTok back, but didn’t immediately elaborate on the reason. Apple, TikTok, and the Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Bondi was sworn into office last week.
The return concludes a fraught few weeks for TikTok. The platform disappeared from US app stores and went dark for users nationwide on January 19, hours before the ban went into effect. It sputtered back to life later that day, after TikTok executives received their own assurances from then president-elect Donald Trump that he would provide more time for a resolution to be reached. If you already had the app on your phone, it was functioning normally by that same afternoon.
After Trump took office on January 20, one of his first executive orders gave TikTok a reprieve. “I am instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward,” the order reads.
Google and Apple, however, continued to keep TikTok out of their marketplaces, meaning new users couldn’t install it. That’s because the law that undergirds the TikTok ban—the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA)—says that American tech companies can’t “distribute, maintain, or update” any apps from ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Those that do face the prospect of hefty fines. That means not just TikTok but a dozen or so apps, including popular offerings like Lemon8, CapCut, and Marvel Snap, have been unavailable to download for over three weeks. (Those apps also returned to the app stores on Thursday.)
While TikTok was unavailable, users searching for it on the iOS App Store were greeted by the following message: “TikTok and other ByteDance apps are not available in the country or region you’re in.” A “Learn more” link sent users to a long article explaining why the app was gone and a reminder that they wouldn’t receive any updates for as long as the ban was in place. The Google Play Store, meanwhile, said, “Downloads for this app are paused due to current US legal requirements.” Searchers were directed to competitor apps, several of which saw a bump in usage.
PAFACA allows the president to extend the deadline for banning TikTok by 90 days if he certifies to Congress that “significant progress” has been made toward a deal to sell the app to a non-Chinese company.
Right before taking office, Trump proposed that the US could have 50 percent ownership of TikTok, without specifying what he meant. The president reportedly recently tapped Vice President JD Vance to lead the negotiations between ByteDance and potential buyers. One reported scenario would involve Oracle and a group of other investors taking control of the platform.
