India blocked access to the messaging app Telegram for a week amid concerns about test-related fraud, prompting an unusually large number of users to turn to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps.
App Intelligence company AppFigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced Telegram restrictions, was the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least early 2025. Downloads of the leading VPN app recently increased 49%, from an average of 139,000 to 208,000 per day, the company said.
Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded the largest increases. Proton VPN downloads on 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 increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play increased 31%.
The surge has pushed several VPN services to the app store charts in India. According to AppFigures, Proton VPN rose from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities ranking from June 16 to June 18, and its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category.
The surge in demand for VPNs follows India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target applicants ahead of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Examination (Undergraduate) re-sit, the country’s largest entrance exam by number of applicants. The Indian government said this measure was necessary to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related fraud. Telegram had challenged the Delhi High Court’s order, 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 in India rose 120% over baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already surged 150% on Tuesday evening due to Telegram restrictions. The company described the increase as “very notable” given the country’s existing scale.
Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe also reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that sign-ups in India peaked around 100% above baseline levels, and first-time downloads of iOS apps in India increased by around 89%.
“The surge in India follows the same general trends seen in areas banning certain apps, introducing age bans or verification requirements, or restricting internet access,” said Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe.
This trend isn’t limited to just a few VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that overall downloads of the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-on-day on June 17, reversing the decline seen over the past two weeks.
Users have also been seen looking for alternatives to Telegram. AppFigures said that since the restrictions, Signal’s downloads in India have increased by 72% on Apple App Store and 322% on Google Play, while Viber’s App Store downloads have increased by 216%.
Telegram-connected messaging app iMe has had one of the sharpest rises. Google Play downloads recently increased from a daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, AppFigures said.
However, these restrictions did not immediately lead to a decrease in Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the move was announced. This is the app’s highest single-day increase in India since the widespread outage of Meta services in 2021.
Other data points also suggest that efforts to access Telegram have intensified following the restrictions.
Cloudflare Radar chief Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests to Telegram domains in India increased dramatically in the two days after the move was announced. The company warned that high DNS traffic does not necessarily mean successful access to the platform and may reflect users repeatedly trying to connect to Telegram after it has been blocked.
Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities at a Delhi High Court hearing this week. The lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for platform-wide restrictions that Telegram said would affect more than 150 million users in India.
Government lawyers defended the move as a temporary event-linked response related to the NEET re-examination. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise concerns about proportionality, but insisted the current restrictions had a “logical connection” to the objectives 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 echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. increased more than 40% week-on-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, and Windscribe said it observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia.
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