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A company called Signulous has helped more than 120,000 Americans install TikTok on their iPhones despite the app being unavailable on the Apple App Store. The company simplifies the process for iPhone users to create iOS developer accounts, which allow them to load apps onto the device without going through the App Store. Apple’s own TestFlight service allows iPhone users to install apps that have not been added to the App Store, with limits.
Signulous told the BBC that at certain times, more than 2,000 people have used its service to download TikTok within a one-hour period. It just goes to show that the younger generations do not care much about US policymakers’ focus on national security concerns in relation to China, something recent studies support. Gen Z is nihilistic—they know the likes of Meta and Google collect their information to use for hyper-targeted recommendations and advertisements, and they do not care much about fears that the Chinese Communist Party could use TikTok to manipulate discourse in America. They get a lot of value from the app, and a lot of the national security concerns remain speculative, with legislative hearings regarding the app being kept confidential.
Legislators do not want to advocate for TikTok to remain available only to later on learn that it was indeed censoring or manipulating speech, however, so the order to divest from Chinese ownership has largely been bipartisan. Trump and Biden “flipped” insofar as they decided TikTok should have more time to divest, but they still both have sought divestment.
Even though President Trump gave TikTok a 90-day reprieve to negotiate a deal in which it would sell to U.S. owners, during which time it can remain active, Apple and Google still have not allowed the app back into their respective stores. Technically speaking, the law banning TikTok went into effect in January, but some service providers like Oracle have chosen to trust Trump’s promise that he will not penalize them for supporting the social network. Apple and Google have, of course, been more cautious.
Funnily enough, TikTok itself has begun instructing Android users on how they can sideload the app themselves, which just shows how confident they are President Trump will stick to his word. The president found himself in an enviable position as he took office, able to (temporarily) walk back President Biden’s ban on the app favored by Gen Z, making Trump look like a savior. President Biden, for his part, had said in the final days of his presidency that he would direct his Justice Department to give TikTok more time to spin off from its Chinese owner ByteDance, but alas, he left office looking like the enemy of America’s youth.
Following the removal of TikTok from the App Store, eBay and Facebook Marketplace were flooded with sellers asking tens of thousands of dollars for iPhones with the TikTok app installed.
Pause lmao 35k??? pic.twitter.com/XOm8fFL5r1
— Megan Nyvold (@MeganNyvold) January 27, 2025
There was talk that Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, would potentially acquire TikTok and further grow his empire. He said last week that he has no plans on buying the company, however. Other suits like Perplexity have stepped up, but it remains unclear whether ByteDance is willing to sell at all, or whether the Chinese government would allow a deal. TikTok remains very popular around the world, so it may well be willing to retreat from the American market and maintain the app across the rest of the world.
