The Indian government’s decision to temporarily restrict access to Telegram quickly increased the demand for VPN applications and alternative messaging services in the country. Following the decision taken to combat exam fraud, users turned to different platforms to both access Telegram and meet their communication needs. Data shared by application analysis companies reveals that VPN downloads reached one of the highest levels of the year on the day the restriction was announced.
According to Appfigures data shared by TechCrunch, on Tuesday, when India announced that it had temporarily limited Telegram access, the number of downloads of VPN applications increased from the recent daily average of 139 thousand to 208 thousand. This means an increase of approximately 49 percent. The company states that this is one of the strongest VPN demand increases recorded in the country since the beginning of 2025.
Particularly Proton VPN and Turbo VPN have achieved remarkable growth figures. On the Apple App Store side, Proton VPN downloads increased by 113 percent and Turbo VPN by 85 percent. On Google Play, there was a 64 percent increase for Proton VPN and a 35 percent increase for Turbo VPN. In addition, NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased by 41 percent, while ExpressVPN’s Google Play downloads increased by 31 percent.
This intense interest in VPN applications is also reflected in store rankings. According to Appfigures data, Proton VPN rose from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities category between June 16 and June 18. On Google Play, it rose from 8th to 2nd place in the Tools category.
The restriction on Telegram came to the fore before the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) re-exam, which concerns millions of students in the country. The Indian government decided to temporarily restrict the platform until June 22 on the grounds that fake exam documents and fraud attempts could spread through Telegram. Telegram objected to the decision in the Delhi High Court, arguing that problematic content should be targeted instead of blocking the entire platform. Despite this, the court ruled on Friday that the practice should continue.
After the Telegram restriction, alternatives such as Signal and Viber came to the fore
In addition to the rise in VPN usage, it also seems that users are turning to alternative messaging applications. According to Appfigures data, Signal’s downloads in India increased by 72 percent on the App Store and 322 percent on Google Play. Viber’s App Store downloads also increased by 216 percent.
The iMe application, which works in connection with the Telegram infrastructure, experienced one of the most remarkable growths. According to company data, the number of downloads of the application on Google Play increased from an average of 827 per day to approximately 50 thousand 900 on June 16.
However, the access restriction did not immediately reduce Telegram usage. According to data shared by Sensor Tower, Telegram’s number of daily active users in India increased by 17 percent on the day the decision was announced. The company states that this is the largest daily user increase in the country since 2021, when widespread outages in Meta services were seen.
There are other indicators that indicate users are trying to access Telegram. Lai Yi Ohlsen from Cloudflare Radar said that there was a significant increase in DNS queries for Telegram domain names from India for two days after the restriction decision. However, the company emphasizes that the increase in DNS traffic does not directly mean successful access, and that users’ repeated attempts to reach the platform after the block may also create this picture.
VPN providers also report that they are observing similar trends. Proton said daily new records from India rose 120 percent above normal levels on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening, hourly registrations increased by 150 percent. Canada-based Windscribe also reported that registrations in the country increased by approximately 100 percent, and there was an 89 percent increase in the number of first-time downloads of the iOS application.
Rebecca Rosenberg, director of growth operations at Windscribe, says similar trends are common in regions where certain apps are banned or internet access is limited in various ways. As a matter of fact, Sensor Tower data revealed that during the period when TikTok was briefly removed from US application stores in 2025, VPN downloads in the country increased by more than 40 percent on a weekly basis. Windscribe, on the other hand, states that it has observed similar user behavior following access restrictions in countries such as Iran and Russia.
Telegram, on the other hand, stated that it cooperated with the authorities during the court process and removed the channels reported by the official authorities. The company reminded that it serves more than 150 million users in India and questioned the necessity of a restriction affecting the entire platform. The court concluded that the decision, which was put into effect on the grounds of emergency, was in accordance with existing procedures. These developments bring to the agenda once again the discussions about how access restrictions imposed on major online platforms change user behavior.