Time.news – Communicate and protect yourself: these are the applications in wartime. Messaging for dialogue and information, digital sirens for anti-aircraft warnings, apps for translating or learning a foreign language. This is Ukraine seen through the download filter. Not just a commercial fact, but a cross-section of habits that tells a fragment of conflict.
The sirens on the smartphone
Air Alarm (Повітряна тривога) is the app that warns citizens in the event of an air attack. It sends the alert to the users of a city or a district, with a sound similar to that of city sirens. Developed by a Ukrainian company with the support of the government, it was – according to preliminary data collected by Sensor Tower for Time.news – the most downloaded between February 24 and March 20. It has had around one million downloads. A huge figure considering that it was launched on March 1st, five days after the Russian invasion.
Telegram e Signal
If Air Alarm meets the need to protect yourself, the other two most popular apps concern the need to communicate, both privately and to circulate information. Telegram had 771,000 installations. The messaging service – which combines chats with open and closed groups – immediately established itself as the reference channel, both among citizens and for organizations supported by the government. A few downloads away is Signal, a messaging app that pays great attention to the privacy of users and the protection of their data: it has been downloaded 765 thousand times.
Looking for secure communications
The growth of Signal has been sensational. In the twenty days preceding the attack (between 3 and 23 February) she had registered just 63 thousand downloads. In the following twenty (from February 24 to March 16) there were already 701 thousand, with an increase of 1013%. Telegram also had a strong increase (+ 70%, from 402 thousand to 684 thousand), but it started from a more solid base
. It is natural for an app that is already heavily used to have lower growth rates. But the race for Signal certifies the search for safer communications, alternatives to a platform – born in Russia – which has not always stood out for its transparency. The conflict has therefore transformed Signal: until a few weeks ago a niche app, since the beginning of the war it has been downloaded several times than Facebook (seventh, with 459 thousand installations), TikTok (eighth with 447 thousand) and WhatsApp (tenth with 427 thousand).
Starlink, from 40 to 280 thousand
Rounding out the top 10 are two games (Talking Ben the Dog and Fun Offline Games), a photo effects app (Photo Lab Picture Editor & Art) and, in fifth place, Action (Дія), a Ukrainian application for the management of documents (from driving licenses to identity cards) headed by the Ministry for Digital Transformation. It is not in the top ten, but it also emerges from the Sensor Tower data Starlink, the app that allows you to access the Internet through the Elon Musk satellite constellation: with just 40 downloads, before the war, it was practically non-existent in Ukraine. From February 24 to March 16 it was downloaded 280,000 times.
Apps for learning English and Polish
With the Russian invasion, another need also emerged: the app download to translate or learn a foreign language. In the first nine days of March, digital translators were downloaded 198 thousand times, 71% more than in the first nine days of February. And language learning applications also grew by 47%. Those who remain want to communicate as much as possible, with the widest possible audience. And those who run away have to overcome not only borders but also language barriers: among the ten most popular “language” apps, three focus on learning English and three on Polish. The most international language is that of the first reception across borders. Communicate to protect yourself.