Message promoting ‘Telegram’ rings in confusion for app users

LUCKNOW: Smartphone users across the country found themselves in a fix after a message on their cell phones urged them to boycott American messenger service -- WhatsApp -- and be a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ mission. It suggested use of another app - Telegram, billed as the ‘first Indian social media application’!

“PM Modi ne naara diya hai Make in India. Aaiye pehel karen, American whatsapp ki jagah Telegram ko apnayein. Akhir ye pehla bharatiya social media app hai,” reads the message that landed in users’ WhatsApp account on Thursday.

“One has to pay ` 56 yearly for WhatsApp and there are around 20 crore WhatsApp users in India. Quitting the application will save ` 1,120 crore from going out of the country. If the Chinese can boycott it and opt their application WeChat, then why can’t us,” the message further says.

Interestingly, the message, which a few people called a rumour got a thumping response from users, who immediately downloaded the said application.

“I downloaded Telegram immediately after getting the message early in the morning. The Prime Minister’s call is for the right cause… why promote an American application,” said Harish Singh, an IT Professional who switched to Telegram.

Sudhanshu Bhardwaj, a private employee too jumped on to the Telegram bandwagon and termed it a ‘new-era swadeshi movement’. “I don’t think there is anything wrong in promoting swadeshi things. I am finding Telegram far better than WhatsApp,” he said.

In the mean time, thousands of people switched to Telegram to become a part of the ‘swadeshi mission’.

But then came a shocker when users came to know that the message propagating ‘Telegram’ was fake.

“Telegram is not an Indian app…it was originated in Germany and was founded by two brothers Nikolai and Pavel Druv, founder of Russia’s largest social network,” read a review post by a user Anubhav Mehra on Google Play Store.