Mobile messenger and communication apps - Statistics & Facts

Messaging apps have also increased the range of services they offer. Apart from being a more convenient alternative to SMS-based texting, they also provide enhanced features such as group chats, photo sharing, voice calls, and video calls. According to an April 2021 survey, more than half of the people interviewed were using third-party mobile apps to make voice calls either very often or somewhat often.

In 2020, the global outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic drove users towards engaging more with both voice and video calls, with usage of video conferencing and video call apps increasing both for private and for professional purposes. However, as of the first quarter of 2022, downloads of leading video conferencing apps Zoom and Microsoft Teams experienced a decline, as users in leading markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom are increasingly showing signs of video call fatigue, especially in professional settings.

Meta-powered messaging apps

Meta currently owns two leading messaging app products – WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The social media giant acquired WhatsApp in early 2014 for an eye-watering 19 billion U.S. dollars, when the messaging service had about 465 million monthly active users. In June 2022, WhatsApp was estimated to count over 2.26 billion unique users worldwide. Meta-owned Facebook Messenger also made the ranking of the most popular mobile messaging app worldwide, with approximately 988 million monthly active users as of January 2022.

Initially released in 2011, Facebook Messenger, an app purely dedicated to chatting, was developed to take over the instant messaging function previously connected to the main Facebook app. In 2021, the app reported approximately 347 million downloads worldwide, down by over 33 percent compared to the 523 million downloads amassed during the previous year. Messenger has since grown to include social features such as stickers, short video messages, and stories - which have been winning characteristics of Snapchat and Instagram - as well as video and voice calls. Improving the user experience on the app and adding functionalities might help Meta in competing with Apple’s native iOS service iMessage, especially in the U.S. market where it holds an audience reach of less than 50 percent.

Privacy-focused apps

Launched in 2013 by the creators of Russian social network VKontakte, Telegram reached the milestone of one billion lifetime downloads in August 2021. The increasingly popular chat app launched its first direct monetization plans in June 2022 with telegram Premium, a subscription service offering users several improved features, such as faster downloads and up to 4GB for uploads. Both Telegram and its competitor Signal - another privacy-focused messenger app using end-to-end encryption- saw a spike in downloads during the first quarter of 2021, likely because of users’ migration after WhatsApp’s controversial privacy policy update in January 2021. However, both platforms were reported to lose daily active users (DAU) right after the initial increase in downloads, with Signal being reported to have lost over 60 percent of the DAUs it had acquired in January 2021 after a few months.

Messaging apps in East Asia

Despite WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger’s global leadership, regional markets differ greatly, with the notable mention of the Asian mobile messenger app market. Local messaging apps such as WeChat, LINE, and KakaoTalk are continuously expanding and competing for leadership. At the end of 2021, popular messaging and social media platform WeChat was counting around 1.27 billion monthly active users, while the Japanese LINE reported 178 million monthly active users, and the South-Korean KakaoTalk reported approximately 53.5 million users active on the platform on a monthly basis.

Mobile chat apps for work

With an increasingly decentralized working environment, mobile chat apps have acquired a spot in professional communication. As of the third quarter of 2021, over 70 percent of surveyed global working professionals reported using messenger services and chat apps daily for work. While far from being mainstream channels for professionals, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger appeared to be the preferred platforms used for business communications. Similarly, consumers still appear to prefer phone calls over in-app contacts with brands, with two in 10 U.S. respondents reporting to prefer chatting with customer service representatives, while four in 10 indicated phone calls as their preferred communication channel.

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