With recent data confirming WhatsApp now has over a billion users there’s no disputing that this is the world’s most popular messaging app.
In a recent earnings call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that WhatsApp now has 1.5 billion monthly active users who send a mesmerising 60 billion messages every single day.
Here in the UK, WhatsApp Messenger is installed on a staggering 84 per cent of all Android devices, with 56 per cent using it daily.
However, despite its popularity, it may come as a surprise to learn that not all countries put WhatsApp as their most favourite way of messaging.
Data from SimlarWeb has revealed which apps are the most used across the globe and, although WhatsApp takes the lion’s share, countries including the USA, France and Australia prefer one of its main rivals.
In fact, Facebook Messenger comes top of the list in 64 countries – up from 58 countries in 2016 – and is gaining traction on WhatsApp.
According to SimlarWeb’s data, in 2016 WhatsApp was the most popular in 107 countries but that dropped to 104 countries last year.
Of course, this news is all good for Facebook who bought WhatsApp back in 2014 for $19 billion (£13.4billion) and that investment appears to have been worth every penny.
It means that Facebook’s two messaging apps take the number one spot in a total of 168 countries with an incredible 89 per cent share of the market – WhatsApp 55 per cent and Facebook Messenger 34 per cent.
Other the these two messaging titans notable mentions are Viber Messenger, rated the top messaging app in 10 countries, and Line in three countries.
Newcomer imo free video calls and chat entered the SimilarWeb map this year, as it is the the No.1 messaging app in two Balkan countries – Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Three apps dropped off the map include Skype, Zalo – Gọi Video sắc nét and BBM.
The news of these huge numbers comes as WhatsApp recently revealed another record.
The messaging firm said it saw 75 billion messages sent across the service on New Year’s Eve.
That number eclipses any other day in WhatsApp’s history with the previous record of 65 million on New Year’s Eve 2016 well and truly smashed.
WhatsApp says that of the 75 billion messages sent, 13 billion were photos and five billion included videos.
Along with WhatsApp’s success, Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook-owned Instagram is now the most popular Story-sharing product in the world.
Facebook Messenger recently launched a new service in the UK that allows users to send money to one another via the popular app.
Peer-to-peer payments have been available in the US for a while but this new feature will now be available to Messenger users in Britain.
WhatsApp has aslo started to roll-out its long-awaited digital payments feature but only in a limited test.
The Facebook-owned messaging app has been working on bringing peer-to-peer payments to the app since early last year.
However, WhatsApp has now started to push-out the feature to a limited number of users in India.
Based on screenshots shared across social media, those with access to the feature will have to verify their phone number via SMS.