Telegram is often considered the best alternative to WhatsApp and the reasons are not lacking. Not only is it a feature-rich messaging platform, but it also comes with state-of-the-art privacy, which, given the controversial policy updates announced by WhatsApp earlier this year, has clearly attracted a significant number of users.
Telegram’s user base continued to grow, until last week when it hit another milestone. Telegram has been downloaded more than 1 billion times worldwide according to Sensor Tower data shared with TechCrunch.
In other words, Telegram is getting bigger and more importantly, it is becoming a serious alternative to WhatsApp in some regions.
The largest market at the moment is India, which happens to be the largest market for WhatsApp as well. 22% of all installations come from India, followed by Russia and Indonesia with 10% and 8% respectively.
The numbers of Telegram
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, praised Telegram’s growth in a post on his personal channel earlier this month and promised many improvements to the messaging app.
“According to research published last week, Telegram became the seventh most downloaded application in the world in 2020. This is not surprising: in recent years, Telegram has been the most versatile and easy-to-use messaging app in the world,” says Durov. said.
“Still, every feature we add reminds me of new improvements we have yet to implement. It’s like reaching the top of a mountain to discover greater heights from the new vantage point. This is what makes this journey so exciting.”
Telegram has yet to make this important announcement, but it’s pretty clear that adoption of the app will continue to grow, especially given its privacy-focused strategy that works like a charm.