India’s Telegram Ban Triggers Surge in VPN Use and Alternative Messaging Apps

## Background to the Telegram Restriction On June 12, the Indian government announced a temporary restriction on the messaging app Telegram, effective until June 22. The move aimed to curb fraudsters exploiting the platform ahead of the re‑test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) – the country’s largest entrance exam by applicant volume. Authorities said the ban was necessary to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams.

Telegram challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that officials should target specific content rather than block the entire platform used by over 150 million Indians.

## Immediate Impact on VPN Demand App intelligence firm Appfigures reported that the day the restriction was announced marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in India since at least the start of 2025. Daily downloads of major VPN apps rose 49 %, jumping from a recent average of 139,000 to 208,000.

- Proton VPN: Apple App Store downloads surged 113 %; Google Play downloads increased 64 %. - Turbo VPN: Apple downloads rose 85 %; Google Play downloads grew 35 %. - NordVPN: Apple downloads up 41 %. - ExpressVPN: Google Play downloads up 31 %.

The surge also reshaped India’s app‑store rankings. Proton VPN moved from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities category between June 16 and June 18, and climbed from 8th to 2nd in Google Play’s Tools category.

## VPN Providers Report Registration Spikes - Proton recorded daily registrations from India 120 % above baseline on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150 % on Tuesday evening. - Windscribe (Canada) saw sign‑ups from India peak roughly 100 % above baseline, while first‑time iOS downloads in the country rose about 89 %.

Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, noted that “the spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access.”

Sensor Tower confirmed that overall VPN app downloads in India rose 10 % day‑over‑day on June 17, reversing a two‑week decline.

## Shift Toward Alternative Messaging Apps Appfigures observed notable increases in rival messaging platforms: - Signal: Apple App Store downloads up 72 %, Google Play downloads up 322 %. - Viber: Apple downloads up 216 %. - iMe (Telegram‑linked): Google Play downloads jumped from a daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16.

## Telegram Usage Remains Resilient Despite the block, Sensor Tower reported that Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17 % on the announcement day – the app’s largest day‑over‑day increase since the 2021 Meta outage.

Cloudflare Radar’s Lead, Lai Yi Ohlsen, noted a sharp rise in DNS requests for Telegram domains in India over the two days following the ban, though higher DNS traffic does not guarantee successful access.

## Legal Proceedings and Government Stance Telegram’s legal team told the Delhi High Court that it had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform‑wide ban affecting its Indian user base. Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event‑linked response tied to the NEET re‑test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that while a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns, the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective.

After arguments on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order, with a verdict expected on Friday.

## Global Context Sensor Tower highlighted a similar pattern when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, noting a 40 % week‑over‑week rise in VPN downloads. Windscribe reported comparable spikes after restrictions in Iran and Russia.

--- The data presented reflects the latest figures available as of June 2026.