WhatsApp remains Russia’s most widely used messaging app despite government restrictions and the Kremlin’s push to promote the homegrown rival Max, the business newspaper Kommersant reported on Monday.

The Meta-owned service reached 97 million unique monthly users in August, up slightly from the same month last year, according to data cited by Kommersant.

VK, the state-linked developer of Russia’s Max app, reported 93.5 million monthly users across its platforms last month, while Telegram ranked third with 91 million.

Max, launched in March as an alternative to WhatsApp and Telegram, is growing quickly but still trails its competitors.

The app counted 32.2 million monthly users in August, but more than 34 million downloads in the first half of September, Kommersant said.

Daily usage remains far lower. WhatsApp recorded 82 million daily users and Telegram nearly 68 million, compared with Max’s 7 million in August, which rose to 16.4 million in early September.