TikTok and CapCut shoot right to the top of Apple’s App Store downloads as ByteDance returns to phones

ByteDance’s TikTok and CapCut apps are back in the Apple and Google app stores after having been absent from both for nearly a month. And in a sign of just how popular both apps are, both apps have rocketed up the App Store charts. Here’s what you need to know about their return—and why you might want to download them again while you can.

TikTok quickly becomes most downloaded app

Yesterday evening, numerous ByteDance-owned apps unexpectedly returned to the Apple and Google app stores after being absent for nearly a month. This includes TikTok and the video editing app CapCut. Both were removed from Apple’s and Google’s app stores on January 18, just hours before a U.S. ban on the distribution of ByteDance’s apps came into force on January 19.

Within hours of the apps’ return, they quickly shot to the top of Apple’s App Store charts. As of the time of this writing, TikTok is the No. 1 most downloaded app on the App Store, while ByteDance’s popular video editor, CapCut, which many TikTok creators rely on to edit their videos, is currently the fourth most downloaded app on the Apple App Store.

While both apps are also back on the Google Play store, neither are yet in the top 25 most downloaded free apps chart, according to data from SensorTower. A possible reason for TikTok’s absence from the Google Play charts—despite its No. 1 position on Apple’s charts—may be because Android users have been able to sideload the app on Android phones since last week.

Regardless, both TikTok’s and CapCut’s positions on Apple’s App Store charts exemplify just how popular the apps are with the general public despite the national security concerns the U.S. government harbors about them and parent company ByteDance.

Why are TikTok and CapCut back in the app stores?

When President Donald Trump returned to office, one of the first executive orders he signed was an order pausing the TikTok ban. Trump halted the ban—which came into effect the day before he took office—by 75 days in order to give his administration “an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”

But while Trump paused the ban, ByteDance’s apps did not return to the Apple and Google app stores. One of the main reasons for this is that some legal experts were uncertain about whether or not Trump’s administration actually had the power to pause the ban.

If it was found the administration did not, and Apple and Google had returned to hosting ByteDance’s apps on the platforms, both tech companies could have been liable for billions of dollars in fines under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, the bill passed in April 2024 that authorized the ban.

So what’s changed? Apple and Google received a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi that assured the companies that the ban wouldn’t be enforced immediately, according to a report from Bloomberg.

This letter was apparently enough for both tech companies to feel that they are no longer at risk of fines—for the time being—if they once again host the apps on their app stores.

You might want to download TikTok and CapCut soon

It’s important to note that despite the assurances Apple and Google received, and despite TikTok and CapCut being once again available on the app stores, the TikTok ban has not gone away. Right now, it’s just paused.

That pause lasts until the first week in April. If a new deal acceptable to lawmakers and ByteDance is not reached by then, then the TikTok ban will go back into effect unless Congress repeals or alters the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

What this means is that, come early April, you may once again no longer be able to download TikTok, CapCut, and other ByteDance apps. So you might want to do it now while you still have the chance—unless, that is, you’re fine with dropping thousands of dollars on an eBayed smartphone.