Facebook Messenger hits 1.2B users, that's a lot of people
The social network's messaging app is now twice as big as Instagram and has as many users as WhatsApp.
Facebook Messenger reaches more than 1.2 billion monthly users.
Facebook Messenger appears to have made it to the big time.
The social media company said Wednesday its messaging app now has 1.2 billion people actively using the service every month -- that's a big chunk of the world's 7.5 billion population.
"I keep on hearing powerful stories about how our product is becoming a more important part of your daily lives," David Marcus, head of Messaging products at Facebook, wrote in a post. "So from all of us here at Messenger, a heartfelt thank you."
Ever since Facebook turned its messaging feature into the standalone Messenger app in 2014, it's beefed up the service with games, video calling and stickers. Just in the past month, it added a bevy of new features including group payments, reaction emojis and live location support to help users track their friends.
Messenger's growth has boomed over the past couple of years. The 1.2 billion-user tally is up from July when Facebook announced 1 billion users on the app. Facebook said in February that 1 billion messages are sent on Messenger every month and 400 million people use the app's video calling feature.
These sizeable numbers mean Messenger now has twice as many users as Instagram, which has 600 million monthly users, and is roughly equal to the amount of users on WhatsApp, which has 1.2 billion monthly users. Facebook owns both Instagram and WhatsApp.
"We're grateful that you continue to use Messenger to stay in touch with the people and businesses that matter to you most," Facebook said in a statement. "We can't wait to share what we have in store next."
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