14 DAY TRIAL // Telegram is often considered the best alternative to WhatsApp, and the whole thing happens for a good reason. Not only Telegram is 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 obviously attracted a significant number of users.
And the Telegram user base just kept growing and growing lately, until last week when it reached a new milestone. Telegram has been downloaded over 1 billion times globally according to Sensor Tower data shared with TechCrunch.
In other words, Telegram is becoming bigger, and more importantly, it’s becoming a serious alternative to WhatsApp in some regions out there.
The largest market right now is India, which coincidentally or not is also WhatsApp’s largest market. 22 percent of all installs come from India, followed by Russia and Indonesia with 10% and 8%, respectively.
Telegram’s growing download count
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, praised Telegram’s growth in a post on his personal channel earlier this month, promising even more improvements for the messaging app.
“According to research published last week, Telegram became the 7th most downloaded application worldwide in 2020. This is not surprising: for the last several years, Telegram has been the most feature-rich and user-friendly messaging app in the world,” Durov said.
“And yet, every single feature we add makes me think of new improvements we are yet to implement. It’s like reaching a peak of a mountain only to discover greater heights to climb from the new vantage point. That is what makes this journey so exciting.”
Telegram is yet to announce this major announcement, but it’s pretty clear the adoption of the app would continue to grow, especially given its privacy-oriented strategy that’s working like a charm given WhatsApp’s blunders.