According to the results of December 2025, the American instant messaging service imo rose to fifth place in popularity in Russia, reports Forbes Citing data from Mediascope, its audience has grown 23-fold over the past year, reaching 9,82 million users. The messenger has proven popular due to call blocking on other similar services, but it's possible it will follow suit.
Having risen to fifth place in popularity among Russians, imo displaced Viber. The platform allows for messaging, voice, and video calls; it is operated by the American company Pagebites (part of Singularity IM). WhatsApp remained the most popular messenger in Russia as of December 2025, with 94,5 million monthly users. Telegram was second (93,6 million), Max third (70 million), and VK Messenger fourth (15,7 million). In December 2024, imo's Russian audience was 417,400 users; in July 2025, before calls were blocked on WhatsApp and Telegram, it decreased to 333,800.
By the beginning of 2025, Russia had already blocked Signal, Discord и Viber; in August, Roskomnadzor restricted Calls and video calls on WhatsApp and Telegram; the domestic Max is currently gaining popularity. In May 2017, imo was banned for non-compliance with Russian law, but was removed two months later when Roskomnadzor confirmed that Pagebites had indeed provided information to the Register of Information Dissemination Organizers (RIO). In May 2025, the company was fined 800,000 rubles for failing to fulfill its RI obligations.
Telecom operators have already taken notice of the growing interest in imo among Russian subscribers. Starting February 9, VTB Mobile will include Max and imo in its "Messenger" option with free calls, excluding Viber. SberMobile included imo in its list of messengers with free data back in 2019. From July to December 2025, the number of imo users on the T2 network quadrupled, the company reported. Beeline added that the number of messenger users did not show significant growth, but "average monthly traffic in 2025 more than doubled compared to 2024." MegaFon subscribers' imo traffic volumes increased starting in July, peaked in October (+13,3% compared to September), then declined, and in December fell by 26,4% compared to November.
Russians are accustomed to making calls via messaging apps, so after WhatsApp and Telegram were blocked, they began looking for alternatives, according to experts interviewed by Forbes. This is especially true for those with relatives, friends, or business partners abroad, although the service is also popular within Russia. The imo messenger "belongs to the group of medium, rather than small, players," with a global audience of 200 million users. In Russia, it has gained popularity through word of mouth. The platform will become increasingly popular among Russians, but at some point, it risks following the fate of WhatsApp. Among the service's shortcomings is its closed source code, making it unsafe to discuss critical issues on it.
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Source: 3dnews.ru
