WhatsApp rival Telegram surpasses 500 million monthly active users

Instant messaging application, Telegram has now crossed 500 million monthly active users. In the last 72 hours, more than 25 million joined Telegram. The big boost in the number of users comes after WhatsApp introduced a new privacy policy.

The new privacy policy from WhatsApp will require its users to allow Facebook to access WhatsApp’s data like contact number, location before February 8, 2021. The user will lose access to WhatsApp if he/she doesn’t accept the new policy before the deadline.

After achieving the milestone, Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov on Telegram shared that, “These new users came from across the globe – 38% from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA”. Telegram has always been a big competitor to WhatsApp because of its privacy and tons of useful features.

Other than Telegram, messaging app Signal is also showing a big boost in the number of users following backlash to WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. Recent data shared by Sensor Tower shows that the Signal messaging service shows a 4,200% growth in users. The application gained around 7.5 million downloads in the period of January 6 to 10.