Instant messaging app, Telegram, has successfully crossed into the league of apps with over one billion downloads.
Telegram, which has its headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), was launched in late 2013. According to mobile insight firm, Sensor Tower, Telegram surpassed the milestone on Friday, joining apps like WhatsApp and Facebook in the league.
With India being the largest market for Telegram, it represents approximately 22% of Telegram’s lifetime installs, Sensor Tower said.
“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 of 2020,” the mobile insight firm said.
While the number of downloads does not equate to the app’s active user, it should be noted that Telegram had about 500 million monthly active users as of early this year.
The surge in Telegram’s downloads coincides with WhatsApp’s controversial privacy policy, and the negative response the app got from users that were afraid for the safety of their data.
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Recently, Telegram received a major update to its video capabilities. The update provides Telegram users with the ability to make video calls with up to 1,000 viewers.
The app added that it intends to keep increasing this limit on its video call participations “until all humans on Earth can join one group call.”
Telegram is now the fifteenth app in the world to have been downloaded over one billion times. Other apps that have also crossed the billion-downloads line include WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify and Netflix, according to Sensor Tower.
It should be noted that Mobile research firms do not track the installs of most Google apps that come pre-installed on Android devices.
