More importantly, Telegram, an instant messaging app with file transfer capabilities, has rocketed to the world's top app download. 

Musk, the world's richest man, told his Twitter followers of more than 46 million to "Use Signal" last month amid concerns about an updated privacy policy for WhatApp.

On Jan. 12, days after Musk tweeted, Telegram said they "surpassed 500 million active users. 25 million new users joined in the last 72 hours: 38% came from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America, and 8% from MENA." 

In December, Sensor Tower ranked Telegram at number 9 on the list, with WhatsApp at number 3. WhatsApp has since slid to the number 5 spot. 

Sensor Tower estimates Telegram downloads are up 3.8 times from January 2020, with a massive 63 million last month. 

Telegram founder Pavel Durov credited Telegram's success to "consistency" in a post on his Telegram channel.

"For the last 7.5 years, we've consistently defended the privacy of our users and regularly improved the quality and feature set of our apps," he said, suggesting "focused effort [applied] over a long period of time" would bring success, whether it be in "sport, blogging, art, coding, business or studying."