Evolution Of Telegram: How It Grew Going Back 2013

Naina Sood — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 02:35:03 +0000

Telegram topped the list of the most downloaded non-gaming apps globally in January 2021. The messaging platform saw over 63 million installs during the month, about four times its downloads during the same period last year. Let’s dig into the history of this fastest-growing product and its evolution over the years:

The launch of Telegram

Telegram was started in 2013 after a contest for Android developers. The alpha version of the app was initially launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android in October 2013 with secret chats and self-destruct timers. After completely documenting the Application Programming Interface (API), the code of the app became an open source as the app touched 1,00,000 daily active users during the first year of its launch. In 2014, the company made the app available for desktop and allowed documents to be sent and received on the app besides introducing voice messages.

The company continuously worked on making the app supportive of iOS and Android products. Meanwhile, the privacy and secret chat settings were upgraded with account self-destruction.

Third party integration, mass reach

The company rigorously spent the first two years in fixing the basics of the app and garnered around 60 million active users. The year 2015 brought in the advancements as the company launched channels to broadcast messages to masses, which gave the product worldwide reach, and a platform for third-party developers to create bots which helped add features to Telegram like payments, moderate groups, emails and much more.

Supergroups, game play and goodies

A lot of developments were brought in to add fun features, especially GIFs, hashtags, sticker panels, emojis to pep up the app and keep the group chats rolling. It created ‘Supergroups’ to tackle its competitor WhatApp’s group limit by increasing the maximum number of users for its group chats to 1,000. By 2016, the group power reached 5,000 members besides updating channels and bots which were integrated with services like YouTube and Foursquare for easy video and location sharing. After integrating the bots, the company notched up by introducing the gaming platform by the end of 2016.

Voice calls, interactive map, secret chat

The company rang in 2017 with voice calls built on end-to-end encryption along with a dedicated video hosting platform called Telescope. The groups levelled up by June 2017, increasing the maximum members to 10,000. It also added a self-destruct timer for photos and videos to give users the option to send disappearing media in private chats. This ‘secret chat’ was the company’s main selling point besides the bigger group capacity. Telegram also expanded its localisation by launching the Translations Platform for users.

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With over 400 million monthly active users in April 2020, Telegram added video calling with end-to-end encryption like Signal and WhatsApp, which Zoom does not have yet.

The dark mode on Telegram

By 2018, Telegram introduced two types of dark modes on its mobile app — night and tinted night, a feature which its competitors are yet to device. The company focused on making its privacy settings more flexible besides creating location-based public chats by 2019. It also introduced ‘Polls 2.0’ which allows users to conduct various types of polls within chat groups and channels.

With over 400 million monthly active users in April 2020, Telegram added video calling with end-to-end encryption like Signal and WhatsApp, which Zoom does not have yet. The group voice chat feature came out by December.

Targeting to build a diverse platform, the app ventured into becoming an online learning tool. The Quiz Polls, a unique offering, was introduced in January 2020 for educational tests. In January 2021, Telegram allowed users to import messages and media from other apps like WhatsApp, Line and KakaoTalk as millions flocked to its platform.

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Telegram: The Most Downloaded Messaging App In January 2021

Naina Sood — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 12:35:02 +0000

With over 63 million installs, Telegram became the most downloaded non-gaming app in the world in January 2021, overtaking Tiktok. According to app analytics firm Sensor Towers, India recorded the largest number of installs at 24%, followed by Indonesia at 10%. The evolution and success of this cloud-based instant messaging app is quite a story.

What led to the surge?

This comes amidst the Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp’s privacy row. The popularity of Telegram increased dramatically after WhatsApp started sending notifications to over 400 million users in January 2021 asking them to either accept its new policy or see their accounts removed from 8 February, 2021. More than the ultimatum it was the contents of the privacy policy that made users uncomfortable. Facing a huge backlash in the country, WhatsApp deferred its new data privacy policy by three months and said that no one will lose his or her account from 8 February, 2021 for not accepting the updated terms of service. However, the damage was already done with people jumping ship to Telegram and its like Signal.

Telegram’s journey

Telegram was started in 2013 by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the creators of VKontakte known as VK, the largest social networking site of Russia. Nikolai created the MTProto protocol that is the basis for the messenger, while Pavel provided financial support and infrastructure through his Digital Fortress fund, with partner Axel Neff joining as a second co-founder.

The battle

Even though WhatsApp has more than 1.3 billion users worldwide, the features offered by Telegram like secret chat, self-destructing messages, encrypted backup ensure more secured chats. Apart from security features, Telegram is also ahead of WhatsApp in terms of other features like Dark Mode and larger group capacity. Every month Telegram added a new feature that seems to really understand what people want or need. Besides all this, it seems to be the only real competition to the giant owned by Facebook. Positioning of the product played the most vital role in Telegram’s success. In the beginning of 2010, there was a lot of news about leaks of personal data, spying on users and abusive use of users’ personal data. The company took advantage of the situation with the request for secured online services and branded the product, hence creating a unique identity.

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According to app analytics firm Sensor Towers, India recorded the largest number of installs at 24%, followed by Indonesia at 10%.

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