TikTok is back on both Apple and Google’s US app stores after President Donald Trump postponed the highly debated ban of the Chinese-owned social media firm until April.

The app was restored after Trump reportedly told the two tech giants that they would not face any legal action, including fines, if they restored access, with the New York Times reporting that both Apple and Google had received letters from the US Justice Department to this effect.

The news follows President Trump signing an executive order last month, one of his first, which instructed his Attorney General to take no action to enforce a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest its operations in the US on national security grounds by the 19th January.

Despite that move, which paused any kind of action for 75 days, both Apple and Google remained reluctant to restore TikTok to their platforms, with the tech firms apparently waiting for more clarity on the legal situation around the ban, which has taken several weeks to emerge.

While neither Apple, Google, or TikTok commented on the return of the app to stores, it means that the social media platform is back to operating normally in the US, even as the conversation around its impact on America’s national security continues to heat up.

Last year, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers backed a proposed ban if ByteDance continued to refuse the order to sell the US arm of its operation, with former President Joe Biden signing the bipartisan bill into law in April last year, which was then later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Recommended reading

• US Calls for ByteDance Divestment from TikTok
• TikTok Trades Human Content Moderators for AI
• EU Calls Out Meta & TikTok Amid Flurry of Disinformation Claims

However, TikTok has around 135 million active users in the US, according to Statista, many of which have been extremely vocal about the prospect of a ban, and now view Trump as the app’s saviour, fuelled at least in part by a popup message, seen by millions, which last month thanked the new President by name.

TikTok had more than 52 million downloads in 2024, with around 52% of its total downloads coming from the Apple App Store, and 48% from Google Play, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, but after going dark briefly last month, the BBC reported that users were turning to unofficial, third-party sites to get access. 

With services now restored, and the top two app stores in the US back on board, TikTok’s future still remains uncertain at best.