At the start of the year, WhatsApp introduced a new privacy policy that seemed to rub users the wrong way. As a result, many users started to seek out alternative messenger platforms that would offer more privacy, and Telegram was one of them. The company had previously reported that at the peak of the controversy, they saw 25 million new users register in 72 hours.
Now according to the latest figures, it seems that Telegram has finally managed to hit 1 billion downloads. This is according to Sensor Tower who claims that Telegram had managed to achieve that milestone after having launched back in 2013, which means it took them a while to hit those figures.
It is unclear if WhatsApp’s controversial privacy policy helped Telegram grow their user base, or if the app would have gotten there eventually, but it is indeed quite an achievement. However, as TechCrunch notes, the number of installs does not necessarily mean that the app’s active users might differ.
This is because users might download and install the app but decide that maybe it’s not for them, but it is clear that Telegram (and other apps such as Signal) have benefitted from the attention that WhatsApp has been getting. In the meantime, it was also previously reported that WhatsApp’s privacy policy could have lost them million of users.
Filed in . Read more about Privacy, Telegram and Whatsapp. Source: techcrunch