Telegram's popularity has grown due to news of its impending blocking

As soon as “exposing” stories began to be shown on TV, the messenger rose in the rankings of the App Store and Google Play.

According to the analytical service App Annie , in June Telegram ranked sixth in the ranking of communication applications on Google Play and was below 20th place in the overall ranking of programs, gradually losing ground.

However, on June 25, Telegram’s popularity grew sharply: the messenger rose to fourth place in the ranking of the “Communication” section and to 19th place in the overall rating of Google Play programs.

In the Russian App Store, Telegram had a floating rating: it traditionally was in lower positions at the beginning of the week and rose higher towards the end of weekdays. Over the past three months, the messenger has never been included in the top 10 free applications: the last time this happened was only on March 22.

However, against the background of news about a potential blocking and stories on federal TV (typically, critical of Telegram), the messenger again entered the top ten free applications in the Russian App Store.

Pavel Durov did not answer TJ’s question about the exact increase in users in Russia in connection with the latest events around the messenger. In February, analysts from the Combot service counted only 6 million users among the Russian Telegram audience.