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WhatsApp growth slumps as rivals Signal, Telegram rise

Published:Friday | January 15, 2021 | 12:20 AM
This Friday, March 10, 2017, file photo shows the WhatsApp communications app on a smartphone in New York. In early January 2021, encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge upticks in downloads from Apple and Google's app stores, while WhatsApp's growth is on the decline following a privacy fiasco where the company was forced to clarify a message it sent to users. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)

Encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge upticks in downloads from Apple and Google’s app stores. Facebook-owned WhatsApp, by contrast, is seeing its growth decline following a fiasco that forced the company to clarify a privacy update it had sent to users.

Mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower said on Wednesday that Signal saw 17.8 million app downloads on Apple and Google during the week of January 5 to January 12. That is a 61-fold increase from just 285,000 the previous week. Telegram, an already-popular messaging app for people around the world, saw 15.7 million downloads in the January 5 to January 12 period, roughly twice the 7.6 million downloads it saw the previous week.

 

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