I've worked with a few journalists this week to help them with content for their stories, which meant keeping my mind on the news. I mostly concentrated on the top apps but noticed a trend in Russia I found interesting.
While Russia's preferred messaging app is Telegram, a trend that's been very strong for a long time, and as you can see below, only gotten stronger, smaller rival and Elon Musk's favorite Signal was barely getting any downloads.
That changed abruptly when the invasion of Ukraine started.
I charted downloads of Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram to give you an idea of the scale each has, and pre-war, Signal had very little. But that changed.
Downloads rose more than 780%, from an average of under 2K per day to more than 15K, according to our estimates. Telegram's downloads rose as well. Not as sharply, but they started at a much higher spot, so that's not a surprise.
Where are all of those downloads coming from? and why Signal?
The need to stay connected right now is an obvious answer, but it's not the only one.
WhatsApp, which was popular in Russia, is now blocked after Meta (aka Facebook) decided to change its rules, which Russia didn't like. Those lost downloads have found a new home in Signal and Telegram.
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