Deciphering Why Telegram Became a Lifeline During Facebook Blackout

Almost everyone who uses the internet was affected by the six-hour-long outage Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experienced on Monday, October 4th.

However, while Facebook lost out on money and reputation, one of the biggest winners was Telegram, which added more than 70 million users in a single day.

But how and why did it reap the rewards so spectacularly? Let’s take a look.

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How Did Telegram Gain So Many Users in One Day?

On Monday, October 4, the Facebook owned-triumvirate of apps—Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—allwent offline simultaneously .

Between them, they handle billions of messages every day, so once it became clear that the downtime was going to last for many hours rather than mere minutes, users quickly looked for alternatives.

Telegram was clearly many people’s first choice, as it managed to add more than 15 percent of its typical monthly active users in just a few hours.

But why did Telegram benefit so much more than any of its rivals?

Why Did People Choose Telegram When WhatsApp Went Down?

Telegram has been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years. Indeed, we’ve espousedthe virtues of Telegram several times on this very site.

Features such as secret chats, self-destructing messages, unlimited storage, larger group chats, multi-platform support, multi-session support, channels, a way to save messages, customizable bots, message scheduling, andmany more features have all seen it chip away at WhatsApp’s userbase over the last few years.

All of these features have helped it become the de facto number two behind WhatsApp in many people’s minds, so installing it during a time of crisis was a no-brainer.

How Important Is This for Telegram?

Most significantly for Telegram, Facebook’s downtime and the rush of refugees that followed marks another major shift in the way people view the app as a service.

One enduring problem that every WhatsApp competitor faces is getting people to switch over to the service en masse. After all, what use is an instant messaging app if none of your friends have it installed?

We had already seen a massive migration to Telegram occur in January 2021 after the debacle surroundingWhatsApp’s new privacy policy .

This latest migration marked yet another large-scale move by users. Telegram is now starting to reach a critical mass whereby you could be missing out on conversations by not having the app installed.

It is arguably the first time that any WhatsApp competitor has been able to make that claim, and it suddenly makes the Facebook-owned app’s hegemony look a lot less secure.

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It Wasn’t All Perfect for Telegram

While October 4 was clearly a very good day for Telegram, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Ina Telegram post , CEO Pavel Durov noted that some users had experienced slower speeds due to the massive influx of new users.

“Users in the Americas may have experienced slower speed than usual as millions of users from these continents rushed to sign up for Telegram at the same time.”

Of course, this was something of a black swan event. However, it is the second time in two years that Facebook has experienced serious downtime (it was also offline for 24 hours in March 2019).

In that time, Telegram’s reputation as an alternative has continued to grow, as too has the number of people using WhatsApp every day. When WhatsApp is not available, Telegram is now the primary backup for most people.

Breaking WhatsApp’s dominance is already a herculean task. If Telegram’s app is not functioning when people need it, the progress it has been enjoying recently could be irrevocably damaged.

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While 70 million new users in a day is impressive, it would be folly to believe that they will all continue to use the service now that WhatsApp and Messenger are back online.

The critical thing from Telegram’s perspective is that the app is now installed on more people’s handsets than ever before. The company now faces the challenge of retaining them as active users. Only time will tell whether that actually happens.