As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over exam-related fraud concerns, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.
App intelligence company Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, was the country’s biggest day for VPN app downloads 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. 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%. App Store downloads of NordVPN increased by 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play increased by 31%.
The rise has 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 VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily block Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a retest National Eligibility Test with Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the largest entrance exam in the country in terms of candidate volume. The Indian government said the measure was necessary to prevent the spread of fake written exams and related fraud. Telegram challenged the decision in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform.
The response extended beyond app store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India increased 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly subscriptions had already surged 150% on Tuesday afternoon following Telegram’s cap. The company described the increase as “extremely significant” given its existing scale in the country.
Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that registrations from India peaked around 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of the iOS app in the country rose around 89%.
“The rise in India follows the same general trend we see in regions that ban certain apps, introduce age restrictions or verification requirements, or otherwise limit access to the Internet,” said Rebecca Rosenberg, director of development operations at Windscribe.
The trend was not limited to a few VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India were up 10% day-to-day on June 17, reversing the decline seen in the previous two weeks.
Users were also seen exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures reported that Signal downloads in India increased by 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play after the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased by 216%.
Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its downloads on Google Play rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures reported.
However, 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 day-to-day increase in the country since Meta’s widespread service outage in 2021.
Other data points also suggest increased attempts to access Telegram after the restriction.
Cloudflare Radar head Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India spiked in the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform and may reflect users repeatedly trying to reach Telegram after being blocked.
Telegram highlighted its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in 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 related to events linked to the NEET re-examination. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns, but argued that the current restriction had a “logical relationship” to 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 rose more than 40% week-on-week when TikTok was briefly removed from US app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has seen similar patterns following restrictions in countries such as Iran and Russia.
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