TikTok is offering its Android app for download in the US

TikTok users from the United States can now download and install the mobile application for Android devices from TikTok’s website.

“We’re enhancing ways for our community to continue using TikTok by making Android Package Kits available at http://TikTok.com/download so that our U.S. Android users can download our app and create, discover, and connect on TikTok,” the video platform says in a post on X.

On the site Android users will find both TikTok and TikTok Lite, a version of the app that is designed for users with a slower internet connection. Once they’ve downloaded the right .apk file, they can install the app just by opening it.

The option to install apps outside the official Google Play Store, also called sideloading, only exists on Android. Apple doesn’t allow sideloading, which means that people with an iPhone or iPad will have to continue using TikTok in their web browser at least until the company reinstates the app in its App Store, which could take a while.

For the time being, European users can’t download the installation files via TikTok’s website.

Despite the fact that TikTok still isn’t available in the Play Store and App Store in the United States, a TikTok help page claims that the app “remains safe and secure”.

On January 19, 2025, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance decided to remove the TikTok app from the Play Store and App Store. The Biden administration passed a law that officially banned the video platform. The law stipulated that popular apps that are controlled by a ‘foreign adversary’ were no longer allowed to be offered in the United States, unless they are divested to an American vendor.

A few hours after going dark, ByteDance decided to restore its service in the U.S., because President-elect Donald Trump promised he would postpone the law by 90 days by issuing an executive order.

President Trump wants TikTok to be included in a joint venture with an American stake of at least 50 percent. This way TikTok would be ‘in good hands’ and could remain online in the United States, he said.