Telegram has 200 million active users

Messaging app Telegram has announced that the app has been used by 200 million people in the past month. As a result, the number of users has doubled in the past two years.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has revealed the user count on Telegram’s blog. In the blog post, he emphasizes that the app has not shared any data with third parties since its inception.

The messaging app was recently discredited, because the Russian government has sued the app. Telegram refuses to decrypt its messages for the Russian secret service. The app must meet the requirements of the FSB within two weeks, or else it will be blocked in Russia.

Durov founded Telegram in 2013. Many users of the app are people who are switching from competing apps like WhatsApp because they are concerned about their privacy. In February 2016, the number of users touched 100 million.