WhatsApp’s new policies have created an uproar among online users. Whatsapp is a Facebook-owned instant messaging app. Everyone is criticizing Facebook for new terms and conditions. Telegram and Signal are the major companies that are benefitting a lot from current controversy.
Business tycoons like Elon Musk, Twitter CEO have requested their followers to use Signal. As per the latest data from Sensor Tower, there is a 35% decline in Whatsapp downloads between Jan 6 to January 10.
In the same time period, Signal saw a surge in new downloads. Users downloaded Signal 2.3 million times, whereas, Telegram saw 1.5 million new downloads between Jan 6-10.
Complete Download Statistics of Whatsapp, Telegram, and Signal
The current WhatsApp controversy has made Signal very popular in India. Between Jan 1 and Jan 5, users downloaded Signal 24000 times. This number is very less compared to the data for the next 4 days. Surprisingly, Signal observed a total of 2.3 million between Jan 6-10.
Telegram is already a popular instant messaging app in India. It also gained an exponential user base after the new policy declared by WhatsApp. Compare to 1.3 million downloads between Jan 1-5, it was downloaded 1.5 million times on Jan 6-10.
WhatsApp is the biggest loser at the current time. From 2 million downloads on Jan 1-5, it slipped to 1.3 million downloads after the declaration of new terms and conditions.
If we talk about the total downloads since 2014 of these 3 apps, no app is even near to WhatsApp in India. The signal is the least popular. Number wise, Users downloaded Signal 3.9 million times, whereas Telegram received a total of 151.5 million downloads since 2014. WhatsApp had a total of 1.4 billion downloads in India since 2014.
Why Telegram, Signal Touched new Heights?
There are different reasons why Signal and Telegram got more popular.
The first reason is the anger of online users against the new policies of Whatsapp. Users were surprised to see the new terms and conditions that are totally against the privacy of users.
The second reason behind their surge is the endorsement of businessmen for these apps. Elon Musk two words tweet, “Use Signal”, brought huge traffic to Signal. The traffic was so huge that they could not release the one-time authentication code to all new users. American Whistleblower Snowden and Twitter CEO also praised Signal.
Telegram officials also promoted their app as user-centric. Telegram CEO even blamed Facebook for their unethical practices against Telegram.
A recent statement by PayTM CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma boosted Signal and Telegram business. He said that “WhatsApp and Facebook are abusing their monopoly. They have taken user privacy for granted. It is in our hand to decide whether we want to become a victim or we reject such moves. They say the market has power. We are the largest Market.”
PayTM CEO further requested Indian users to install the Signal app for instant messaging purposes.
Indian based tech company Zoho is also launching Arattai, an instant messaging app to woo the Indian market. Arattai is already available on Google Play for testing. The official launch may take place in a few weeks.
