As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.

App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said.

Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%.

The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures.

The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order 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 rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country.

Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%.

“The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said.

The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks.

Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%.

Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.

Yet 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 largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021.

Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction.

Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over 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 could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked.

Telegram pointed to 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 over 150 million users in India.

Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being 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. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia.

After all, pictures are only worth a thousand words.

Spotify on Wednesday launched Reserved by Spotify, turning the concert ticketing concept it unveiled last month into a live product. The feature automatically holds up to two concert tickets for Premium subscribers based on their listening habits, making Spotify the first audio streaming platform to offer dedicated pre-sale ticket access.

The first artist to participate is indie-pop singer Role Model, according to Music Business Worldwide. Eligible fans will receive notifications with a roughly 24-hour purchase window opening on 23 June.

How it works

Reserved analyses a subscriber’s streaming data, including how often they listen to an artist, how long they have followed them, and whether their behaviour appears organic rather than bot-driven. There will reportedly be more superfans than available seats for any given tour, so not everyone who qualifies will receive an offer.

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The tickets come from a dedicated inventory that is not carved from any other presale pool. Spotify is positioning this as an alternative to the bot-infested public sale process that has frustrated concertgoers for years.

Location also matters. Spotify checks that a user is near a show before extending an offer, filtering out fans who are unlikely to attend.

The Live Nation deal

Reserved runs on a multi-year exclusive partnership with Live Nation, with all ticket transactions processed through Ticketmaster. Spotify is reportedly paying tens of millions of dollars for the exclusivity, outbidding Apple and Amazon, according to Bloomberg.

The exclusivity means Reserved only covers shows promoted by Live Nation, not all concerts. Spotify itself collects no fees on ticket sales, betting instead that tying concert access to Premium subscriptions will reduce subscriber churn.

The bot problem

Ticketing fraud remains a multibillion-dollar problem for the music industry. Bots routinely snap up tickets within seconds of a public sale, funnelling them to resale platforms at inflated prices.

Spotify says it monitors for bot activity and artificial listening patterns, and will not reward users who inflate their play counts through passive or automated streams. The company has not disclosed the specific thresholds or algorithms it uses to distinguish genuine fans from gamers of the system.

Spotify has previous form in policing its platform for fraudulent activity, having removed hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs over suspicious listening patterns. Reserved applies a similar detection philosophy to ticketing, treating organic fandom as a credential that unlocks real-world access.

What it means for artists

For artists, Reserved offers a way to ensure their most engaged fans get into the room rather than scalpers. Spotify’s relationship with musicians has been contentious, particularly over royalty payments, but a feature that directs concert revenue toward performers could shift the dynamic.

The feature is US-only at launch, with no confirmed timeline for international expansion. Whether Reserved can meaningfully dent the secondary ticketing market will depend on how many artists and tours opt in, and whether Live Nation’s competitors build their own streaming-linked presales in response.

At first glance, it feels like a genuine challenger to the likes of Oura, RingConn and Samsung. The ring itself looks good, feels lightweight on the finger and comes with a charging case, which is a welcome upgrade over the previous Circular model. Battery life is solid too, lasting around six days during my testing.

But unfortunately, the day-to-day experience doesn’t live up to that impressive spec sheet.

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The biggest issue is the software. Smart rings don’t have screens, which means the app is incredibly important. That’s where the Circular Ring 2 struggles the most.

Liberty Bank, a 201-year-old mutual bank headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut, announced the launch of an AI Center of Excellence alongside a strategic partnership with Flare AI. The centre will serve as the hub for AI strategy, governance, and execution across the bank’s personal, commercial, and digital operations.

The partnership is structured around outcomes rather than software licences, according to David Hadd, Liberty Bank’s head of Business Transformation. “Flare’s role is to design, build, and help deploy AI systems on Liberty Bank’s behalf, compressing what has historically been a multi-year technology buildout into weeks, with the security, compliance, and governance controls regulated institutions require,” Hadd said.

Liberty Bank has over $9 billion in assets, 51 retail banking offices across Connecticut and Massachusetts, and more than 900 employees. It is the oldest and among the largest mutual banks in the United States. The bank says the initial focus will be on deploying secure AI systems to enhance productivity and customer experience, automating complex core processes, and building reusable AI capabilities.

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“For a bank our size, the challenge has never been ambition. It has been the time it takes to translate strategy into execution,” said David Glidden, President and CEO of Liberty Bank. The bank expects the AI Centre of Excellence to drive measurable impact across customer experience, operational efficiency, and growth. Large banks have warned that scaling AI in production is more expensive and error-prone than pilot programmes suggest, making governance and quality control critical from the start.

Flare AI CEO Scott Killoh said the company takes a different approach from platform vendors. “Most banks have been sold AI platforms and left to figure out the rest,” Killoh said. “We partner with institutions to deliver working AI systems that are secure, compliant, and tailored to their business.” Flare AI’s new President and Chief Strategy Officer, David Mitchell, previously spent six years as an executive at Liberty Bank, giving the partnership an unusual level of institutional familiarity.

The announcement reflects a broader shift in how regulated industries are adopting AI, moving from experimental chatbots toward structured, governed deployments with audit trails and compliance guardrails built in. For community banks competing against institutions with far larger technology budgets, the speed of deployment matters as much as the technology itself.

Xreal has officially unveiled its new Aura smart glasses. While they certainly won’t be cheap, they’ll still cost considerably less than Snap’s recently announced Specs.

The Aura runs Android XR, Google’s operating system for mixed reality devices, giving users access to a growing ecosystem of apps right out of the box.

Xreal hasn’t revealed exact pricing yet. However, the company says the Aura will launch for under $1,500 before tax when it arrives later this year. That’s a notable contrast to Snap’s Specs, which rely on proprietary software and are currently up for pre-order at $2,195.

The glasses feature an Optical See-Through (OST) display with a 70-degree field of view. They are powered by dual Sony Micro-OLED panels with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 per eye and a 120Hz refresh rate. Since the displays are transparent, users can still see their surroundings, though electrochromic dimming is included for moments when greater immersion is needed.

If you want to edit your Microsoft Office 2019 files on your Mac, you’ll only be able to do so until next month.

Starting July 13, Office 2019 apps for Mac — including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote — will enter a “reduced functionality mode” that disables editing, saving or creating new files, while allowing only viewing and printing. This restriction also affects outdated iPhone and iPad applications, according to Microsoft.

That’s because Microsoft Office 2019 stopped being officially supported in October 2023, and the version no longer receives software or security updates. 

Subscribers of Microsoft 365 on newer supported versions of Office on MacOS, as well as customers of the nonsubscription Office 2021, will need to update their software before July to avoid the same fate.

The heart of the issue is an expiring security certificate that validates Office licenses. Microsoft renewed the certificate and updated other versions of Office to properly recognize it, but not the 2019 version for Mac. Microsoft Office versions for Windows aren’t affected by this security certificate.

Pulling the plug on Office 2019

Microsoft’s end-of-support notice for Office 2019 cites a five-year support lifecycle for the software bundle. Office 2019 was released in September 2018, making it nearly 8 years old.

With software updates, that’s not unreasonable. But this certificate issue doesn’t appear to be due to broken code that would pull resources from other newer projects to fix. Office 2019, which was sold as a one-time purchase, still works just fine. 

The problem is that Microsoft won’t provide an update that would activate the renewed certificate. The expiration of security certificates is a standard industry practice designed to limit the risk of compromised cryptographic keys.

But some critics argue Microsoft’s deadline is self-imposed. Compounding the backlash, Microsoft quietly removed a previous online promise that the software would “continue to function.”

When reached for comment via email, a Microsoft spokesperson replied: “Microsoft is not intentionally limiting or changing Office 2019; the product cannot receive the renewed certificate because no update path exists for an out-of-support product.”

The last full-purchase version of Office for Mac is Office 2024, which will continue to be supported. Its predecessor, Office 2021, will also continue to work but will enter end-of-support mode in October 2026.

Office 2019 existed in the not-so-distant past, before Microsoft started bolting artificial intelligence features into all its products. It’s safe to assume that some customers are holding onto their apps because they want the core word processing, spreadsheet and presentation features without today’s distractions.

If you do decide to upgrade to a newer version from Office 2019, you’ll need to download and run a License Removal Tool, open an Office app and then go to Help > Check for Updates to activate it.

As an alternative, you can use Microsoft 365 on the web for free.

Microsoft says it has detected new self-propagating malware that spreads through USB drives in search of cryptocurrency credentials, which it then sends to attacker-controlled servers.

The company named the worm Crypto Clipper because it monitors the contents of device clipboards for patterns consistent with wallet addresses or seed phrases. When found, the malware also takes five screenshots over a 10-second period. Both the credentials and the screenshots are then sent to the attacker through Tor, a network protocol that provides anonymous routing by sending traffic through redundant nodes so logs can’t capture both the sending and receiving IP addresses. Crypto Clipper establishes the Tor connection by using a SOCKS5 proxy, a network protocol that sends traffic through a proxy server, which then forwards it to its final destination.

A lightweight backdoor

“The execution of this clipper is notable because it does not depend on a traditional installer or exposed IP-based C2 infrastructure,” Microsoft said Thursday. “Instead, it deploys a portable Tor client, routes traffic through a local SOCKS5 proxy, and blends data theft with remote code execution, turning a financially motivated stealer into a lightweight backdoor.”

Microsoft said it observed Crypto Clipper spreading through .lnk file on a USB drive. These files store executable code. When an infected USB drive is plugged into a device, the code checks whether it is already installed on the machine. If it isn’t, the malware downloads it through the Tor proxy. To better conceal evidence of the worm, the malware scans the infected USB drive and names the .lnk files with similar names.