Aarogya Setu, Zoom most downloaded apps by Indians in lockdown
Aarogya Setu, the mobile app launched by the government of India for monitoring COVID-19 patients, was the most downloaded apps in the second week of April.
On April 14, while addressing the nation to extend the lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly recommended that it should be downloaded by every citizen.
The app, developed by the government’s National Informatics Centre, provides latest updates on the contagious disease and helps one track their COVID-19 status.
In that one week, the app was downloaded by 5.5 million people, thanks to a strong push by Modi, besides heavy promotion by public officials on the ground across the country. Overall, the app, as of April 24, has been downloaded 75 million times.
Second on the popularity list, is the controversial Chinese video calling app – Zoom. It saw 4.2 million new downloads in the same week in India while total downloads across the globe have crossed the mark of 100 million already. Zoom is being used by many people for professional as well as personal use for the last few weeks. However, it ran into controversy after objectionable visuals started appearing in between meetings, prompting the government to issue a warning against its safety and security.
Ludo King, an app of the old board game, has become a hit among netizens in lockdown times and was the third most popular app in the second week of April. The app witnessed 3.8 million downloads in the second week of April while it has more than 100 million downloads on Playstore.
Related News: Aarogya Setu – mass outreach or data overreach?
Apart from these three apps, Carrom Pool (2.8 million) and TikTok (2.6 million) saw a surge in the number of downloads. The doubts about the spread of coronavirus through currency notes has encouraged digital transactions. This was evident from the 2.2 million new downloads of GPay, an app that enables UPI transactions through mobile phones.
In the same week, UVideo (2.1 million) and Whatsapp (1.8 million) too saw more than a million downloads in India.
