Location removed: business moves from Telegram to corporate messengers

Business interest in corporate messengers increased dramatically against the backdrop of Telegram restrictions at the end of March 2026. The demand for such software has increased fivefold. At the same time, up to 70% of businesses continue to use Telegram and WhatsApp (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) for work tasks, and another 35-40% work in a hybrid format, combining external services with corporate platforms. How the limitations of the popular messenger have become a driver of growing interest in domestic IT solutions and whether companies will be able to completely abandon foreign platforms - in the Izvestia article.

How much has the demand for Russian messengers increased

If earlier companies used Telegram as a compromise solution, then against the background of decreasing availability of the platform, this approach is losing relevance: many are not ready to risk information security by implementing bypass services. As a result, entrepreneurs, including representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, are increasingly switching to domestic analogues, representatives of the telecom industry told Izvestia.

— This is the third objective reason for migration to import-substituted software in several years. The first signal was the departure of foreign companies from Russia, the second was the restrictions on WhatsApp in 2025, and now the situation with Telegram. It's literally like three theater calls," Igor Baranov, an IT specialist and information systems security expert, told Izvestia.

Interest in Russian platforms increased fivefold after Telegram restrictions in March 2026 — by 400%, said Vladimir Zykov, director of projects at ANO Digital Platforms and head of the Association of Professional Users of Social Networks and Messengers.

— Messengers have become a key channel of business communication, largely replacing e-mail and even calls. Telegram's restrictions have wreaked havoc in work processes and have clearly shown companies' dependence on external platforms," he told Izvestia.

According to him, the business had to look for alternative communication channels in a short time, but the transition is taking place in stages. Up to 15% of organizations have already implemented corporate solutions, while up to 70% still use Telegram, IMO and other platforms. Another 35-40% work in a hybrid format, combining several tools.

— Now businesses are increasingly looking not just at messengers, but at secure communications in a closed loop — with full control over data, infrastructure and access. We are no longer talking about a separate service, but about integrated software and hardware solutions," he added.

The growing demand for corporate platforms is also being recorded by domestic software developers. TrueConf reported that since the beginning of the year, the number of requests for specialized messengers has doubled.

— We are witnessing a steady increase in interest in server solutions that allow companies to fully control communications and data storage. This is a key requirement from big business and the public sector," the press service told Izvestia.

At the same time, the company itself abandoned public platforms back in 2021, transferring internal and external communications to its own system. TrueConf estimates that 58% of organizations already use corporate resources for work chats, with the majority choosing autonomous services with full infrastructure control.

"Many companies in Russia started switching to their own solutions in advance, but Telegram's restrictions accelerated this process: businesses had to urgently deploy tools for rapid migration to corporate systems," a source in the telecom industry explained.

Choosing ecosystems and security

A sharp increase in interest in the MTS Link messenger was caused by restrictions on public platforms in February 2026: the number of new registrations increased 14-fold. Already in the first quarter, companies began to actively scale the use of the service among employees: in one of the large hotel groups, the daily active audience increased by 55%, and in the leading pharmaceutical holding company — by 182%. The number of online calls increased 2.8 times, said Oleg Pashukevich, director of the Unified Communications business unit of the platform.

A similar trend is noted in VK Tech. They recorded a twofold increase in the number of users of the cloud version of VK WorkSpace in March in annual terms.

"The main customer demand today is a single platform for communication and collaboration, where all services are integrated and available in one application," the company's press service told Izvestia.

Large businesses, as a rule, deploy such solutions in their own loop, while small and medium-sized entrepreneurs more often choose cloud versions. An additional driver remains the development of ecosystems of external communications through the MAX platform. At the beginning of April, more than 500 thousand companies joined it, VK Tech added.

Yandex 360 reported that more than 170,000 organizations are already using the virtual office, and this figure continues to grow.

"Companies are increasingly choosing not disparate resources, but a single workspace where communications, documents and business processes are interconnected," the press service said.

The fifth wheel in the cart: how Russians' online behavior is changing against the background of blockages

Users switch to forgotten or little-known messengers, as well as install wired Internet.

The key trend is to combine communications, documents, and workflows in a single loop. For example, the Teleconference video and chat service is gradually moving beyond the classic messenger: the platform combines calls, correspondence, videoconferencing and AI-based tools. The audience of the resource has grown 3.5 times over the year and reached about 8 million users, the company added.

— The business needs not just a "Telegram replacement", but a full-fledged working environment in a secure loop. This is also confirmed by user activity within already connected organizations: the number of unique users in the messenger increased by 22% in March. According to the results of the first quarter, the growth of active users increased by a third, and we expect that growth will continue," explained the product owner DION.Chats (T1 IT holding) Stanislav Polyansky.

Sergey Kravtsov, a member of the Board of Directors of NTC IT Rosa and Rutek, agrees with this. According to him, the ongoing business transition to local communication platforms can be viewed as a broader transformation of the entire corporate environment, rather than just a change in communication tools.

Oleg Makarov, Head of Bitrix24 Development at Softline Solutions, in turn, attributes the acceleration of this transition to the increased risks of data leaks.

— Even without malicious intent, there is a risk of sending confidential data to a third-party chat. That's why businesses choose services where communications are embedded in workflows and linked to tasks and CRM," he told Izvestia.

It is the ecosystem that is becoming the key factor that displaces Telegram from work scenarios: now you can immediately set a task from a chat or go to a hangout without leaving a single workspace, said Alexey Postrigailo, senior partner at Ensain IT integrator. At the same time, corporate solutions are still often inferior to Telegram in terms of convenience, especially in mobile scenarios. Therefore, the requirements for security, data control, and environmental manageability remain the key driver of the transition.

According to Olga Skulova, Director of the Information Security and OCS Department, the market is simultaneously changing business models.

"The focus is on cloud services, API ecosystems and the introduction of AI: up to 80% of developers plan to add such features to products this year," she stressed.

According to her data, 43% of Russian software manufacturers plan to enter export markets by the end of 2026.

Will the trend towards corporate messengers continue?

The trend towards the development of corporate messengers and business services will continue in the coming years and is likely to intensify. Businesses, including small and medium—sized business segments, will gradually shift their focus from mass solutions to local and proprietary products that are more deeply integrated into the internal processes and infrastructure of companies, the cybersecurity business partner believes. Cloud.ru Julia Lipatnikova.

— They provide more control over data, manageability and predictability of work. This is a natural evolution of the corporate digital environment. We are talking about the global trend towards digital sovereignty, when technological ecosystems develop within their own markets and contours. This stimulates the emergence of local products adapted to business objectives and regulatory requirements, as well as increases the sustainability of the infrastructure," she told Izvestia.

According to her, the use of corporate messengers has already become a stable practice for large Russian IT companies. In fact, it's not just about chat rooms, but about a controlled communication environment where it's easier to protect trade secrets, manage access, and respond promptly to incidents. As a result, such solutions are becoming part of the overall cybersecurity architecture for IT organizations, rather than just replacing Telegram and its analogues.

By 2027, about 60-70% of medium-sized and large Russian companies will use at least one internal communication system as the main channel for work issues, according to Igor Bederov, head of the Internet Search company. In his opinion, foreign messengers will remain for external chats and household correspondence.

— It is difficult to make accurate forecasts of the development of the IT industry in Russia today, given the current restrictions. However, it is already obvious that the solutions that have replaced imported products will continue to actively develop: some of them will gain a foothold in the market, some will leave," says Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily and organizer of the III annual national conference "Telecom of the Future — 2026".

In his opinion, companies, including telecom operators, will expand the range of localized services for corporate clients. In general, the trend will continue, and the role of existing messengers will decrease over time.