like india cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.
App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the highest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least early 2025. Downloads of top VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said.
Proton VPN and Turbo VPN saw some of the biggest increases. Proton VPN downloads on the Apple App Store in India increased by 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads increased by 85%. On Google Play, Proton VPN downloads increased by 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased by 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads are up 41%, while ExpressVPN’s Google Play downloads are up 31%.
The surge also pushed several VPN services up the Indian app store charts. Proton VPN rose from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities ranking between June 16 and 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures.
The surge in demand for VPNs followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over fears that scammers were using the platform to attack candidates ahead of a new test for the National Eligibility and Entry Test (Undergraduate), the largest entrance exam in the country by volume of applicants. The Indian government said the move was necessary to prevent the spread of fake exams and related scams. Telegram challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should focus on specific content instead of blocking the entire platform.
The response extended beyond app store download data. Proton said daily records from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already increased by 150% on Tuesday night following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely notable” given its existing scale in the country.
Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that Indian registrations peaked at about 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%.
“The rise 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,” said Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe.
The trend wasn’t limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the entire VPN app category in India increased 10% day over day on June 17, reversing a decline seen in the previous two weeks.
Users also seemed to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said Signal downloads in India increased by 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play after the restriction, while Viber App Store downloads increased by 216%.
The iMe messaging application, linked to Telegram, recorded one of the most pronounced jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.
However, the restriction did not immediately translate into less use of Telegram. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the move was announced, the app’s biggest daily increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta services in 2021.
Other data points also suggest increased efforts to access Telegram after the restriction.
Cloudflare Radar leader Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply in the two days after the move was announced. The company warned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform and could reflect that users repeatedly tried to access Telegram after it was blocked.
Telegram highlighted its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings at the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are more than 150 million users in India.
Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary response, linked to an event linked to the new NEET test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality issues, but argued that the current restriction had a “logical nexus” with the intended objective.
After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday.
The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the US increased more than 40% week over week when TikTok was briefly removed from US app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it had seen similar patterns following restrictions in countries such as Iran and Russia.
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