⚡ Instant Messaging Apps in Russia

Instant messaging apps allow users to communicate in real time via text, voice, and video, often with group chats, file sharing, and end-to-end encryption.

Russia is a Eurasian country with a population of around 144 million people.

According to our statistics, instant messaging apps are detected on 24.9% of websites from Russia.

⭐ Most Popular in 2026

The following chart shows the top instant messaging apps on websites in Russia in 2026, based on market share.

The most popular is Telegram, which dominates the market with a substantial 85.2% share.
It is followed by WhatsApp with 32.5% and Viber with 5.6%.

Telegram 85.2%
WhatsApp 32.5%
Viber 5.6%
Max 2.6%
Discord 1.2%
Messenger 0.4%
WeChat 0.05%
XMPP 0.04%
Slack 0.04%
Snapchat 0.01%
Gitter 0.01%
IRC 0.01%
Microsoft Teams 0.005%
Matrix 0.005%
Line 0.005%

🚀 Highlights

Here is a list of the top apps that are more popular in Russia than worldwide.
Differences between global and country rankings are shown in parentheses.

1. Telegram ^(-1)
3. Viber ^(-5)
4. Max ^(-10)
8. XMPP ^(-11)
9. Slack ^(-3)
10. Snapchat ^(-1)
11. Gitter ^(-5)
12. IRC ^(-5)
14. Matrix ^(-1)

✨ Best Instant Messaging Apps

Below is a more detailed list of 16 instant messaging apps used on sites from Russia, ranked by their market share.

Rank	Name	Market share
1	Telegram Dubai, United Arab Emirates A cloud-based messaging app for mobile and desktop platforms focused on security, speed, and privacy. Free$$$	85.2%
2	WhatsApp Menlo Park, California, United States An instant messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Meta. Free	32.5%
3	Viber Tokyo, Japan A free, cross-platform instant messaging and calling application owned by Rakuten. Free	5.6%
4	Max Moscow, Russia An instant messaging app from Russia, integrated into the country's national IT ecosystem. Free	2.6%
5	Discord San Francisco, California, United States An instant messaging and VoIP social platform that allows users to communicate via text chat, voice, and video. Free$2.99+	1.2%
6	Messenger Menlo Park, California, United States An instant messaging service developed by Meta, available on Android, iOS, and web platforms. Free	0.4%
7	WeChat Shenzhen, China A Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app that has evolved into a super-app combining communication, commerce, and everyday services. Free	0.05%
8	XMPP Parker, Colorado, United States A set of open technologies for instant messaging, presence, multi-party chat, voice and video calls, and collaboration.	0.04%
9	Slack San Francisco, California, United States A cloud-based team communication platform for businesses, currently owned by Salesforce. Free$8.75+/month	0.04%
10	Snapchat Santa Monica, California, United States A messaging and social networking app that lets users send photos and videos ("Snaps") that disappear after being viewed by default. Free	0.01%
11	Gitter London, United Kingdom An open source chat and networking platform for software developers based on the Matrix protocol. Free	0.01%
12	IRC A text-based chat system for instant messaging supported by many clients such as mIRC, XChat, ChatZilla and others. Free	0.01%
13	Microsoft Teams Redmond, Washington, United States A proprietary business collaboration platform built for hybrid work, offering chat, video conferencing, file storage, and application integration. Free$9.99+/month	0.005%
14	Matrix London, United Kingdom A set of open APIs for open-federated Instant Messaging, Voice over IP and Internet of Things communication. Free	0.005%
15	Line Tokyo, Japan A Japanese instant messaging and social networking app often described as a super-app because it integrates services such as a digital wallet, news feed, digital comics, media streaming, and shopping. Free	0.005%
16	QQ Shenzhen, China A Chinese instant messaging software platform. Free	0.005%

👉 See Also

🌎 Instant Messaging in other countries

Data is based on the analysis of 80,490 websites from Russia.
Statistics were last calculated on January 28, 2026.
For details, see our methodology and disclaimer.