Walkie talkie app Zello tops iTunes chart in the US during Hurricane Irma – but it started life in Russia
More than 1 million downloaded the Zello app in just one day as Hurricane Irma approached
By Lucy Handley
More than 1 million people downloaded walkie-talkie app Zello in just a day as Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean, and it’s now topped Apple’s app store chart in the U.S.
People are using it to talk to each other during Hurricane Irma, which is currently heading away from Puerto Rico towards the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
It’s beating YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat right now in the chart, and reached 100 million users in February.
“We have seen a large number of people signing up for Zello in preparation for Hurricane Irma. Over 1 million people have joined in the last day, with most coming from Puerto Rico and Florida,” said founder and chief technology officer Alexey Gavrilov in a blog post.
Launched as Zello in 2012, the walkie-talkie app was ranked at number one on Apple’s iTunes Chart on Thursday morning with people using it to communicate during Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas late last month, its chief executive Bill Moore stated on LinkedIn on Wednesday.