The popular instant messaging app Telegram has finally passed 1 billion downloads according to mobile insight firm Sensor Tower.
The app achieved the milestone on Friday and it is now the 15th app to do so.
“[India is] followed by Russia and Indonesia, which represent about 10% and 8% of [all installs], respectively. The app’s installs accelerated in 2021, reaching about 214.7 million installs in the first half of 2021, up 61% year-over-year from 133 million in H1 2020,” the report added.
In the report, there was something interesting that stuck out. The surge in downloads correlates with WhatsApp’s poor handling of its privacy policies. Correlation doesn’t often equal causation, but just for a thought experiment, it seems like an interesting metric to look at.
One of Telegram’s unique value selling points is the idea of privacy. Despite Reputable media outlets that had recently torn apart this idea.
The app has now joined a unique spot in the app ecosystem. Earlier this year, they had an active user base of about 500 million monthly active users. Even though the downloads have been surging for a while, It still doesn’t equal to active users.
