Even as the long-term future of TikTok is still far from settled, the popular short video app, which had briefly gone dark last month, was back on the Apple and Google app stores in the U.S. on Thursday. That was a significant shift for the tech giants, which had kept the app removed from their respective stores even after an impending ban was delayed.
There has been speculation that Apple and Google were awaiting assurances that they wouldn’t face legal issues for hosting or distributing the app, Reuters reported.
How long the app will be available is now just the latest uncertainty for TikTok. It was just weeks ago that President Donald Trump delayed the impending ban soon after taking office – in essence throwing the Chinese-owned social media platform a last-minute lifeline.
It was last April that President Joe Biden signed into law the bill that had wide bipartisan support in Congress that required the Chinese-based ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in the U.S.. Yet, after taking office, Trump issued an executive order that delayed enforcement of the ban by 75 days, while it could be further extended.
A Popular Platform
TikTok, which was the first non-Facebook app to cross the three billion users worldwide, currently maintains around 170 million users in the United States, and the company claims that more than seven million small businesses now use it in some way. It was also the second-most popular app in the U.S. last year, with more than 52 million downloads.
About 52% of those downloads came from the Apple App Store, while the remaining 48% were from Google Play, according to research from Sensor Tower. The platform had been removed from both app stores on January 18, 2025.
Back On The App Stores
Given the intense popularity of TikTok and the fact that President Trump has reversed course on it – after banning it during his first term – it isn’t really all that surprising that it is back on Apple and Google app stores. Yet, Trump’s executive order shouldn’t be seen as a proverbial presidential pardon, and rather it may just be a temporary stay of execution.
“I wouldn’t overread the situation,” said Roger Entner, technology industry analyst and social media pundit at Recon Analytics. “It can disappear as quickly as the last time when President Trump changes his mind or the law takes effect when the current executive order expires.”
Apple and Google may see the popularity of TikTok and are simply meeting customer demand. This may not be the permanent status quo, as the security concerns that led to the app’s ban haven’t been addressed or alleviated.
“The difficulty is we don’t yet have a sustainable remedy,” added Rob Enderle, principal analyst and founder of the Enderle Group.
There may be another push for ByteDance to sell the app, or face a permanent ban.
Another Chinese App Has Stolen The Spotlight
The reprieve that TikTok received also came just as lawmakers turned their attention to another Chinese app, and that has taken some of the pressure away – at least for now.
“DeepSeek has become the new congressional boogeyman which has taken a lot of heat off TikTok and going after TikTok is far riskier, politically, than going after DeepSeek,” said Enderle.
The release of the Chinese generative-AI caught the world by storm, and tanked the American tech market last month.
“Unless something changes, blocking TikTok will be a low priority for the administration. Even Musk who wanted TikTok has shifted his focus to OpenAI which suggests that there is a good chance TikTok is safer for the moment. The stores deciding to put the app back up indicates they too see the TikTok ban as currently unlikely and have gone back to business as usual with the app.”
