TikTok has been banned in India after the Supreme Court refrained from imposing a stay order on the ruling by Madras High Court. As a result, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked Google and Apple to de-list the popular video making app from their respective app stores. As of April 17, the app is no longer available to download in India from either of the two app stores.
While users of TikTok who have the app downloaded on their phones can use it without any restrictions, new users cannot access the app from Play Store or App Store. Having said that, there are certain workarounds in place that at least allow Android phone users to access TikTok. Do not that both the platforms have restricted Indian users from downloading the app, hence the methods listed below are not official and users should keep that in mind.
How to download TikTok in India on Android phones
Due to the customizable ecosystem of Android, supported apps can be downloaded from third-party app stores and websites. However, it is not recommended to install applications on your phones that do not originate from a verified source. This is because of the increased risks that come with downloading an app that's not on Google's Play Store as users could fall for malicious apps that are disguised as TikTok.
Even after these warnings, if you want to download TikTok on your Android phone, here are the best means to do just that.
Third-party app stores like APKMirror and APKPure have TikTok listed on their respective app stores. These are two of the most popular third-party app stores and the app has a rating of 8.2 on APKPure, backed by 400+ reviews. The latest version of TikTok available on either of the two app stores is version 5.8.3 and it is around 73.5 MB in size.
Another method for Android users to get access to TikTok in India is to procure the app from someone who has it installed on their phone via APK sharing apps such as SHAREit.
How to download TikTok in India on Apple iPhone
Apple's iOS ecosystem is more secure than Android and hence certain caveats like installation of a third-party app isn't officially supported. Having said that, there are a couple of third-party app stores that lists iOS apps but we would not recommend iPhone users to download TikTok from any of those sources.
TikTok's parent company ByteDance has appealed its case in Supreme Court of India which will be heard on April 22.
