Facebook Messenger finally hits the one billion user mark

Fri, 22nd Jul 2016

FYI, this story is more than a year old

On the 20th of July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.

Fast forward 47 years (to a totally unrelated subject) and there are now one billion people using the Messenger app to communicate every single month.

While they should probably be working, one billion people are sharing their dreams, their goals for the future, making lunch dates and sending really really funny GIFs.

As part of the celebration, Messenger have added a new emoji to share more joy with its users.

“We're grateful for all the people who are sending billions of messages every day and we hope to send 1 billion thank yous in the form of a new floating balloon gift that everyone can use to celebrate. Just send a balloon emoji to your friends to add a touch of whimsy and delight to any conversation,” a company statement read.

Messenger have also announced that it is the second most popular iOS app of all time (just behind Facebook). However, in order to use the main Facebook app, iOS and Android users have to download the chat app. So in reality its kind of a non-event.

The company also shared a few other fun facts:

More than one billion messages are sent between people and businesses each month. This number has more than doubled in the past year.
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.
People on Messenger have played 1.2 billion games of basketball

David Marcus, VP of Messenger, says that as part of the journey, the company 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.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg was also in on the celebration.

"Thanks to everyone in our community who has been a part of this. There's a lot more to do -- and a lot more coming soon -- but this is another step on the journey to connect the world."