Its hasn’t even been a year and Messenger users have reached another milestone. The Facebook backed instant messaging app has just achieved 1.2 billion active monthly users.
Even WhatsApp took 7 years to get to 1 billion users, Messenger has managed to do that in just 4.
Comparing the numbers from last year, the increase amounts to 20 percent from July 2016 (1 billion). 71% of Facebook’s total active monthly users (1.68 billion) use Messenger, which is up 11% from July last year.
Unfortunately the social media giant did not share other details about the app’s usage.
New Features Added Over Time
Over the last few months, Messenger has received a number of updates and features. These include:
- Messenger Day (similar to Snapchat Stories or the new WhatsApp Status)
- Polling
- Quick Replies
- Easy switching between video and phone conversations
- Single inbox for brands (same for Facebook, Messenger and Instagram)
- Camera update with new art and special effects
- Group video chat
- Group payments
- Reactions and @mentions
- M assistant
Facebook could start showing ads on the Messenger now that the user base has expanded this much. They’re already testing ads with a select group of people in Thailand and Australia. The ads are primarily shown on the homescreen for now but there’s a chance that the company will expand it further.
David Marcus, Head of Messenger division at Facebook said that they’re focusing on ads with Messenger to improve revenues.
