Telegram’s ban in India has sparked a rush towards VPNs and competing apps

With India cutting off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users have turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.

Tuesday, the day India announced it was restricting Telegram, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025, app intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the company said.

Proton VPN and Turbo VPN posted some of the biggest increases. Proton VPN downloads on the Apple App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, Proton VPN downloads are up 64% and Turbo VPN downloads are up 35%. NordVPN App Store downloads increased by 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play increased by 31%.

This increase has also pushed several VPN services to the top of app store charts in India. Proton VPN rose from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and 18, while Google Play rose from 8th to 2nd in the Utilities category, according to Appfigures.

The spike in demand for the VPN came after India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that scammers were using the platform to target candidates ahead of the re-examination of the National Eligibility Test for Entrance (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance exam in terms of applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure is necessary to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than ban the entire platform.

The response extended beyond App Store download data. Broughton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already risen 150% on Tuesday evening after Telegram was restricted. The company described the increase as “very noteworthy” given its current size in the country.

Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that sign-ups from India peaked at nearly 100% above baseline levels, while debut downloads of its iOS app in the country were up about 89%.

“The rise in India follows the same general trend we see in regions that ban certain apps, impose age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” said Rebecca Rosenberg, director of growth operations at Windscribe.

This trend is not limited to a few VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India were up 10% day-over-day on June 17, mirroring the decline seen over the past two weeks.

It also appears that users are exploring alternatives to Telegram. Signal downloads in India rose by 72% on the Apple App Store and 322% on Google Play after the restriction, while Viber App Store downloads increased by 216%, Appfigures said.

The messaging app linked to Telegram iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.

However, this restriction did not immediately translate into a decrease in Telegram usage. The number of daily active Telegram users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced, the app’s largest daily increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta services in 2021, Sensor Tower said.

Other data points also indicate intensified efforts to access Telegram after the restriction.

Lai Yi Ohlsen, leader of Cloudflare Radar, told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days following the announcement of the measure. The company warned that high DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly trying to access Telegram after it has been blocked.

Telegram cited its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for platform-level restrictions affecting what Telegram says are more than 150 million users in India.

Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary event-related response linked to the NEET retest. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise concerns about proportionality, but said the current restriction had a “logical relationship” to the goal sought.

After hearing the arguments submitted by Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its ruling on Friday.

This debate reflects questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the US rose more than 40% weekly when TikTok was briefly removed from US app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it observed similar patterns after restrictions in countries such as Iran and Russia.