Indians shift loyalties to Telegram, Signal

WhatsApp still remains the market leader; Users moving to multiple apps for high security

Bengaluru: Social messaging space is increasingly witnessing more competition with applications like Telegram and Signal seeing more adoption among users. However, WhatsApp remains the market leader in Indian despite recent changes in its privacy policy.

According to a survey conducted by techARC, a research firm that provides insights on technology market data and trends, consumers are using multiple apps for chatting and sharing as emerging platforms such as Telegram and Signal provide high security as one of the important features. "Though there is a clear first-mover advantage for WhatsApp, users are increasingly signing up other platforms like Telegram and Signal for their unique features and better security they offer. With this, future of messaging apps in India is going to be pluralistic in nature," said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst at techARC. The survey, which was done among 2,000 active users, found out that despite the recent surge in usage of new platforms, WhatsApp has more than 53 per cent users over three years.

In the past three years, Telegram gained most of its users in the Indian market. Similarly, Signal gained more than 47 per cent of its users in the last year, the survey showed.

The survey found that at least one in every five respondents preferred Telegram over WhatsApp for reasons like higher security features and privacy policies. Also, sharing of large files is relatively easier in Telegram than on WhatsApp, the respondents said.

Telegram is also gaining popularity as a medium of education as 78 per cent of the respondents find educational content on the social messaging platform.

Experts said that the change in the privacy policy of WhatsApp can lead to further migration to peer social messaging platforms like Telegram and Signal. Recently, WhatsApp has announced a change in its privacy policy with more integration with its parent entity Facebook. The company has said that it would lead to better customer insights and user experience.

The central government has expressed its reservation on the new privacy policy of WhatsApp and asked the social messaging platform to withdraw recent changes citing grave concerns over the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens in potential data-sharing with Facebook.

Commenting on this issue, Pareekh Jain, a technology outsourcing advisor and founder of Pareekh Consulting said that Indian consumers are opting for various messaging platforms to exchange information. "Despite privacy concerns, the usage of WhatsApp continues," he added.

In an important move, the central government has started promoting a local version of WhatsApp named 'Sandes' for exchanging sensitive information among public officials. Though the app is currently being used by a limited number of officials, the government is planning to roll it out for all government officials in the near future.