As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over exam fraud concerns, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.
App intelligence firm Appfigures told JS that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, was the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the beginning of 2025. 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 recorded some of the biggest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s 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 by 35%. NordVPN App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play increased 31%.
The increase also pushed several VPN services higher in India’s app store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Tools rankings between June 16 and 18, while its ranking on Google Play rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures.
The spike in demand for VPNs followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a new test for the VPN. National Eligibility and Admission Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance exam in terms of number of applicants. The Indian government said the measure was 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 instead of blocking the entire platform.
The answer extended beyond the app store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India increased 120% above the base level on Wednesday, after hourly registrations already rose 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely remarkable” given the existing scale in the country.
Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told JS that signups from India were about 100% above baseline, while initial downloads of the iOS app in the country increased by about 89%.
“The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, implement age bans or authentication requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” said Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe.
The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told JS that downloads in the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-on-day on June 17, reversing the decline of the past two weeks.
Users also seemed to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. App figures said Signal downloads in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play after the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads rose 216%.
Telegram-linked messaging app 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.
Still, the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced – the app’s biggest daily increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021.
Other data points also indicate increased efforts to access Telegram after the restriction.
Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told JS that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply in the two days after the measure was announced. The company warned that increased DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, but could indicate users repeatedly trying to reach Telegram after it was blocked.
Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. The lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction that would affect what Telegram said are more than 150 million users in India.
Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-related response tied to the NEET retest. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns, but argued that the current restriction had a “logical connection” with the aim pursued.
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 reflects questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the US rose more than 40% week-on-week when TikTok was briefly removed from US app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries such as Iran and Russia.
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