WhatsApp is growing considerably despite the introduction of a new privacy policy

The time has come: WhatsApp will introduce its new privacy policy from Saturday for everyone who has agreed to the terms and conditions since January. Research shows that despite the backlash it experienced due to the conditions, the service continues to grow considerably. At the same time, Telegram and Signal were able to take advantage of the problems with WhatsApp.

Growth for Telegram and Signal

WhatsApp began sending unannounced requests to agree to a new privacy policy earlier this year. With the new policy, which only applies outside of Europe, the company wants to request permission to share data with other Facebook apps. According to the American tech giant, this concerns data from conversations with companies on Facebook. So it is not so much about radical changes; nevertheless, the change was considered undesirable. It is a unilateral change that has been approved must turn into.

Many users initially thought that WhatsApp would be able to view messages sent via the platform. This led to a worldwide aversion to Facebook’s messaging service: people switched to services such as Telegram and Signal. Signal was downloaded 51 million times from the Play Store and Apple App Store in January. Telegram also grew significantly from the event and was installed 64 million times in January. Between January and April, Signal was downloaded a total of 64.6 million times, while Telegram was downloaded 161 million times between January and April.

In addition, the hotspot of the installations was in January; since then, downloads in the app stores have started to decline to pre-WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. Despite this, Telegram is fully committed to retaining users and persuading new users to switch from WhatsApp. For example, a function was launched earlier this year to export WhatsApp conversations to Telegram. Telegram also offers useful features such as disappearing messages, an audio chat for groups and bots that you can add in conversations for extra functionality. Message locking is still missing, which makes the platform less suitable for sending privacy-sensitive messages.

‘WhatsApp continues to grow’

WhatsApp saw its growth slow down sharply in recent months, according to the data that SensorTower collected from the Play Store and App Store. Compared to the same period in 2020, the app was downloaded 43 percent less in 2020. Despite the contraction in growth, the messaging service managed to report green numbers – 172.3 million people downloaded the app between January and April of this year. So the app continues to grow faster than its competitors. The question is also whether there will be growth for Telegram and Signal in the long term, given the immense market share of WhatsApp.

According to Facebook, ‘the majority’ of users have agreed to WhatsApp’s terms and conditions. Yet that does not necessarily mean that users remain active on the platform. Our AW Poll previously showed that WhatsApp remained the most popular chat service, but that Telegram and Signal – after months of peace since the discussion about the privacy policy – had achieved continued growth. Do you use multiple chat services, or do you prefer to stick to one service? Be sure to let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article.