Chat messaging service Telegram has been growing ever since WhatsApp had its controversial privacy rules scandal, and now, 9to5Google reports the chat app has reached an important milestone in its growth: 1 billion Play Store downloads.
Telegram passes 1 billion downloads on Google's Play Store
The chat app has now surpassed the 1 billion download mark on the play Store, likely due to a surge in downloads shortly after the outage Facebook and other Facebook-owned apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram experienced recently.
But it's not only that, as apparently there are many reasons people would consider downloading Telegram. It is a worthy download if you want more control over your one-to-one or group conversations, and the app includes a number of useful features that many similar rival services lack, including the ability to use it on multiple devices simultaneously.
Currently, WhatsApp's implementation of multi-device support is still quite restrictive and allows for only one smartphone for an account: WhatsApp has been working on beta for multi-device connectivity but it is still not in a final release. Regular improvements and features added to Telegram have made it a popular alternative over the years.
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Telegram's CEO, Pavel Durov, recently stated that the messaging app had over 500 million active users (active monthly) at the start of 2021. As a result of the recent issues with WhatsApp and the outage of Facebook, Durov stated that over 70 million new users have joined Telegram.
Keep in mind though that 1 billion downloads do not necessarily mean there are 1 billion people who are currently using the app to chat. The download figure also doesn't reflect the people who have sideloaded the APK from the official website either.
Telegram's popularity has been growing steadily, and so has its feature set
Back in January, there was a privacy scandal involving WhatsApp and a new set of rules that people had to accept, that allowed Facebook to gain access to some information of WhatsApp users. Although the new rules applied only to WhatsApp Business, understandably many people decided to ditch the messaging service in favor of Telegram or privacy-focused app Signal. Back in January when the ordeal was going on, Signal's servers crashed from the surge in users joining, and Telegram gained millions of new users.
With the rise in popularity, the app started getting many useful features as well, and it had been working on adding a lot of features recently.
Last month, the app got a major update that brought the possibility to have an unlimited number of participants in a group video call or live streams. Participants can use the hand-raising feature if they want to contribute to the conversation, of course, if you have allowed for this feature during the group call.
The update also brought Flexible forwarding, which allows you to show or hide the caption or sender when forwarding. Additionally, the preview window lets you change the recipient if you have unwittingly tapped on the wrong chat.
Not long after this big update, Telegram users got another update that this time brought some useful customization options, such as chat themes. The chat themes feature makes it possible for you to customize individual chats and therefore improve the look and feel of the interface according to your preference. You can now choose from eight themes, and each theme has colorful gradient message bubbles, animated background, and interesting background patterns.
On top of that, this update brought interactive emojis which can show a full-screen effect for a fun chat experience. Some of the emojis with full-screen effects include the heart, thumbs up, and firecrackers.
For group chats, Telegram also recently got a change in the read receipts feature. When you send a message in a group, it will be marked as "read" as long as at least one member in the group has seen it, while a long press on the message will present you with the group members who have already read it (for smaller groups).
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Iskra Petrova is a news writer at PhoneArena, where she covers mobile tech news and maintains the site’s device hubs with the latest leaked specs, rumors, and official details for upcoming phones. She joined PhoneArena in 2020 after three years in technical support for Microsoft Exchange, giving her practical experience with software infrastructure and troubleshooting. Iskra holds a Master’s Degree in Literature, which helps her translate complex tech details into clear, reader-friendly coverage. She is a daily Apple ecosystem user, while also closely following Sony Xperia’s camera-focused phones and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series.
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