1 billion people on Facebook Messenger

This is a press release from Facebook.

MANILA, Philippines – More than 1 billion people now use Facebook Messenger every month, making Messenger one of only a handful of apps worldwide that touch so many lives.

“As part of this journey to one billion, we focused on creating the best possible experiences in modern day communications. We remain focused on helping connect people to the people and businesses who matter most. Thank you to everyone who uses Messenger around the world, and we’re looking forward to connecting the next billion,” said David Marcus, VP, Messenger.

Messenger thanked all the people “who have sent the many millions and millions of messages with Messenger over the years, no matter if they are heartfelt, funny, hopeful for the future or planning the every day.”

It said it hopes “to send 1 billion thank yous in the form of a new floating balloon feature that everyone can use to celebrate.” 

Messenger by the numbers:

• Now 1 billion people use Messenger every month
• Messenger is the second most popular iOS app of all time, behind Facebook
• More than one billion messages are sent between people and businesses each month. This number has more than doubled in the past year.
• Since the the Messenger platform opened, over 18,000 bots have launched on Messenger and over 23,000 developers have signed up for Wit.ai’s Bot Engine
• 10% of all VoIP calls globally are made through Messenger

Other fun stats about Messenger:

• People send more than 17 billion photos to friends through Messenger every month
• On average, more than 22 million GIFs are sent every day via Messenger. That’s 254 GIF’s per second.
• There are more than 250 sticker packs available in Messenger with more than 4,000 stickers. More than 380 million stickers are sent every day.
• Messenger has been downloaded more than 1 billion times on Android
• People on Messenger have played 1.2 billion games of basketball

– Rappler.com