Following the announcement of changes in the privacy policy by WhatsApp, users are looking for alternatives providing a secure messaging platform and are downloading different apps.

The privacy row has been a boon for the messaging application Telegram which has seen its number of users increased by 25 million in just 72 hours.

According to the announcement made by Telegram, the total number of active users of the application has exceeded 500 million since the recent increase. According to data released by the messaging application, 38% of the 25 million new users are from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from the Middle East.

According to Telegram, the recent increase is significantly higher than last year.The app says that in its seven years it has noticed such an increase in usage many times but this time it is something different.

"We are now a haven for users who want privacy and security," Telegram said, without naming competitors. “We take this responsibility seriously and will not allow users to suffer."

Telegram stated that compared to other applications, it does not respond to shareholders or advertisers. “We do not work with marketers, data miners, or government agencies. Since its launch in August 2013, we have not shared a single byte of our users' private data with third parties.

The search for alternative apps has resulted in users turning to other applications, not just Telegram, but also another app Signal.