In 2020, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order to ban WeChat and TikTok unless US companies controlled them, leaving plenty of TikTok users hanging high and dry. Though the beloved video-sharing app TikTok escaped this ban last year, to the relief of its millions of users, the Chinese app is now facing another round of scrutiny from the US. 

If the potential banning of TikTok does not bother you, good for you! But if you are among the users who will probably be affected by this ban, read this guide and follow the steps mentioned to learn how to download and keep using TikTok. After the ban, you can take two simple steps to download access TikTok. To learn more about them, read on.

Digital Hopping

Whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone, you’ll need to deceive the app into believing you’re not in the United States.

The first thing you’ll need to do is remove your SIM card because it appears that TikTok determines your location based on the area code at the beginning of your phone number.

There are now contradictory claims on whether TikTok utilizes your IP address to find you. Individuals in Hong Kong appear to need to remove their SIM cards and use a VPN, while people in India merely have to remove their SIM cards.

You can only know by removing your sim card; if that does not work, you need to buy VPN.

Mask Your IP Address with a VPN

If the above technique did not work for you, it’s evident that you need to use a VPN to get through the TikTok ban. Top TikTok Dance Challenges

If you haven’t used a VPN before, now is a fantastic time to start because we are moving fast towards authoritarianism. In simpler terms, a VPN (a virtual private network) allows you to use another IP address as your own. Do you want to surf the internet as a Canadian resident? Sure, all you need to do is connect to a Canadian VPN server. The tricky part is that so many VPNs are on the market nowadays, and not all are made equal.

Most of the quality VPNs in the market require paid subscriptions. However, if you don’t want to buy VPN, you can always try your luck with the free VPNs available on the market. The problem with free VPNs is that they are slow and do not always guarantee the best results. This means that not all free VPNs will be able to get you to access TikTok.

Paid VPNs will cost you a couple of bucks, but the results will be worth it.

How to Download TikTok on Your Phone?

Are you done with the struggle of choosing the best VPN service to invest in? Or are you a new user trying to install TikTok first time on your phone after the ban but can’t find it in the store? It will be a hard pill to swallow, but the app has been removed from the US App Store and PlayStore after the ban, making it impossible for new users to download TikTok.

Don’t worry; you can still download TikTok by take these steps:

For iOS

If you want to download TikTok on your iPhone with a VPN, you will first have to change your iPhone’s location to where the app is available on the AppStore. To do that, you need to log out of your current Apple ID, make a new one and change its location to Canada or the United Kingdom. After setting up your new account, open the AppStore from your phone, search for TikTok and download it after connecting to a Canadian VPN server.

For Android

The process of downloading TikTok is relatively more straightforward for Android users. Android users can use APK downloads from the web, unlike iPhone users. All you need to do is download TikTok from a website like APKMirror and complete the installation process.

You may have to remove your sim card and buy VPN, as explained above, but it will not be as complicated as it is for iPhone users.

Final Thoughts

TikTok has been an essential app for many and banning it is unfair. The last ban on TikTok by Donald Trump has left people wondering if this will happen again. Whether it happens again or not, it is always better to stay prepared for the worst. If you love TikTok and can’t think of your life without it, you must follow the steps mentioned in this article to continue accessing the platform.