TikTok is back on Apple and Google app stores in the United States after President Donald Trump delayed enforcing a ban on the short-form video platform for 75 days.
The Chinese-owned social media platform was reinstated on Thursday evening, weeks after being removed in compliance with a newly enacted law prohibiting its operation in the country.
Trump attempted to delay enforcement of the TikTok ban through an executive order, but companies hesitated to restore the app until they were certain it would not violate the law.
The legislation, passed last year, mandated that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, divest ownership to a non-Chinese entity by January 19. It also imposed significant financial penalties on app store operators and internet hosting providers that continued to distribute or support TikTok.
According to The New York Times, TikTok executives expressed optimism during a briefing call on Tuesday that Apple and Google would soon reinstate the app. H. Lee Justine, a TikTok creator and author who participated in the call, confirmed the statement.
“They said that the administration had given them a lot of information that they wouldn’t be penalized and that they were really hopeful that any day now they would put it back in the app stores,” she said in an interview.
“It makes me very hopeful that they felt that they could do this because hopefully this means that long term there’s not going to be issues and this will work out,” she added.
Despite Apple and Google preventing new TikTok downloads, previously installed versions continued functioning normally on American devices.
TikTok’s reinstatement on app stores is a promising development, granting the company until early April to secure a buyer. This marks a dramatic turnaround—just a month ago, it faced a ban with strong bipartisan support in Congress. The law had even received unanimous approval from the Supreme Court before being overturned by Trump.