Here’s how to use TikTok in the US, even if it’s banned

The deadline is almost here: Now the Supreme Court has decided against itTikTok is expected to be banned by law in the United States on January 19th. If yes one of the 170 million Americans Anyone who uses TikTok every day might be a little upset about the situation. Maybe you’ve even come across another Chinese appHow RedNote or the TikTok own Lemon8.

Here’s the good news: Even if the US bans TikTok in this country, that won’t stop you from accessing it. Sure, this may make access much more difficult, but with a little preparation, you’ll be able to keep scrolling on January 19 like you did the day before – at least for a while.

Why is the US trying to ban TikTok?

We’ve broken down the situation in our explainer herebut here is a quick summary. The US has had concerns about TikTok since the first Trump administration. The issue largely revolves around national security: TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a China-based company that must comply with Chinese law. As a result, there are concerns that ByteDance could provide the Chinese government with data about the platform’s millions of American users and manipulate its notoriously addictive algorithm to control what content Americans specifically see.

It’s not necessarily the app itself that Congress and the president are focused on: It’s the Chinese government. That’s why the “ban” is only part of the law that President Biden signed back in April. The language gave ByteDance nine months to find a U.S.-based buyer for TikTok. Otherwise, ByteDance could have sold its stake in TikTok and the app could have continued to operate without interruption. However, the company decided not to do this, but insisted that TikTok (and its proprietary algorithm) was not for sale. So, here we are.

However, regardless of your opinion on the matter, the ban will likely be implemented. What you can control, however, is your ability to access TikTok in a post-ban American. Here’s how:

Make sure you have TikTok on your phone

If the ban is actually enforced, companies like Apple and Google will remove TikTok from their app stores in the US. In this case, the app can no longer be downloaded through official channels: If you try to search for TikTok on iOS in the App Store or Google Play Store, you will probably only find a number of similar social media apps or apps designed for TikTok were – not for TikTok itself.

That’s not surprising: It wouldn’t be much of a ban if the government couldn’t force companies to remove apps from their marketplaces. While the relevant authorities can ensure that apps like TikTok are banned from app stores, they cannot remove apps from your device themselves. If you already have TikTok on your iPhone or Android device, it will stay there – until you delete it yourself.

If you already have TikTok on your phone, great. If not, and you want to make sure you can continue using the app after January 19th, download it now. Here are some links to various marketplaces to get you started:

Sideload TikTok (Android only)

If you forget to download the app before it takes effect, don’t worry: you can still download it, at least on Android.

Unlike iOS (at least in the US), Android allows you to sideload apps, i.e. install apps from unofficial sources. This has long been an advantage of Android over iOS, even though Apple has opened sideloading to users in the EUit remains available only on Android for most of the world. So if you really want, you can download the latest version of TikTok on your Android device even if it is no longer available on the Play Store.

However, you should be careful here: sideloading offers few protections that the app you are installing is genuine. That’s why it’s always better to use the official channels if possible. Google does not always detect the malicious appsbut it finds one much from them. When you go rogue, you run some risks, especially since the world knows that Android users in the US are looking for unofficial TikTok downloads.

If you go this way, Use APKMirror instead of a cursory Google search. The website is trustworthy and a popular sideloading destination. Just make sure you’re downloading TikTok itself and not one of the other variants of the app you might see when searching.

Get a VPN

Nobody can remove TikTok from your phone, but they can destroy it. Again, it’s not exactly clear what will happen if the ban goes into effect, but a strong possibility is that ByteDance simply blocks network access to the app for users in the US. After the 19th, you will be able to open TikTok, however instead of a login screen or your FYP, you will be greeted by a message informing you why TikTok is banned in your country. (Perhaps in the “land of the free” we’ll see something naughty about the First Amendment.)

That will be enough for many (if not most) who will then move on to the US-based short video apps, but not for you: Instead, you can keep using TikTok as if the ban never happened All because you Have a VPN installed on your device.

A VPN (virtual private network) allows you to access parts of the Internet that your country or government would not otherwise allow. It works by encrypting your connection and routing it through servers outside your country. For example, if the US doesn’t allow connections to TikTok, a VPN could make it seem like you’re accessing the internet from, say, Portugal. You can easily watch TikTok in Portugal. So if TikTok’s servers think you’re in the westernmost country in Europe, they’ll connect you. Ban avoided.

There is one Ton of VPNs There’s plenty to choose from, but you don’t have to be keen (or even spend money) to access TikTok post-ban. All you need is a VPN that actively routes your traffic to a country where the app is not banned, as well as a service that routes traffic within apps – not just within your web browser. Otherwise, you can only access TikTok in your browser. While that’s fine on something like a Mac, accessing TikTok through the app is a much better experience, and most of us probably want to use it anyway. That’s why it’s worth prioritizing your VPN.

Proton VPN for example, has a great free tierand should work within the TikTok app on both iOS and Android. I just tested it on Tubi, which prevented me from using it: Proton VPN routed my traffic through Amsterdam, a country that doesn’t support Tubi, and Tubi ever since thinks I’m trying to access it from Amsterdam, no Tubi for me. So the opposite should be true when trying to access TikTok in the US

Don’t use the app forever

I know I just said that TikTok’s app is the best way to experience the platform, but if the US actually bans TikTok next week, you really shouldn’t use it forever.

Here’s the deal: TikTok stays on your iPhone or Android if you already have it installed. However, if the developers no longer support the app in the US, this means that no new features will be added to your app and no fixes will be made for any bugs that may arise. Therefore, the longer you use the app after the ban, you may experience strange glitches or crashes, and you won’t see any of the changes TikTok is making to the app in supported parts of the world.

But that’s not my concern here. If the only problem was an unstable TikTok experience, well, whatever. But at some point the app becomes a security risk. Just as TikTok developers won’t be able to release new features or bug fixes for the app, they also won’t be able to patch security vulnerabilities discovered later. And there will There can be security vulnerabilities across the board: this is simply inevitable with software. At some point, vulnerabilities will surface that TikTok will patch for the app in the countries it supports, but since it’s cut off from the US, you won’t see those updates. Instead, you’re using an app with a growing list of vulnerabilities that malicious actors cause will exploit to your own advantage. It probably won’t happen overnight, but after a while the app becomes a real risk for staying on your device – especially if malicious users know that there are people in a country as large as the United States who use an app use without security patches.

Ironically, by banning the app on national security grounds, the US government has turned it into a very different kind of security risk.

But do you still want to continue using TikTok?

The most important question in a world where the US successfully bans TikTok is: Do you actually want to continue using the app? Sure, at first glance everything will probably seem the same, but as the app becomes more buggy and insecure, the experience will undoubtedly lose its luster.

But it also goes beyond that. American YouTubers probably won’t bother posting on an app that’s banned in their country and instead switch to it full-time other established platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. As more creators leave the site, you’ll see less content that you normally interact with – content that you might find in apps that aren’t banned.

Of course, most of the rest of the world will continue to post on TikTok, but it will be interesting to see if this potential ban will have any impact. Will the loss of hundreds of millions of users inspire creators outside the U.S. to focus on platforms Americans can use? If so, will TikTok lose even more content?

There are simply too many unknowns at this point. For all we know, the Supreme Court will save TikTok and this entire post will be full of useless advice. However, there is a very real chance that this ban will pass, and with it a likely seismic shift in the future of short videos. If you follow the advice here, you’ll at least get a front-row seat to TikTok’s future — whatever it may be.

To ensure you can continue to access your favorite TikTok content even if the app is no longer accessible or safe to use, Download your videos now.