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Most Popular Messaging Apps (2024)

by Fabio Duarte
June 26, 2024

Messaging apps are a part of many people’s daily lives.

Their popularity has grown significantly in recent years and they show no sign of slowing down.

Read on for the latest data on instant messaging services including specific stats related to the most popular apps.

Contents

Top Messaging App Statistics 2024 (Editor’s Picks)

  • WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app with 2 billion monthly users.
  • There are over 3 billion active users on messaging apps.
  • Snapchat generates more revenue from in-app purchases than any other messaging app, bringing in $18.07 million per month.
  • WhatsApp is the leading messaging app in over 60 countries.

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app, boasting approximately 2 billion monthly users. That’s over 600 million more than the second most popular messenger app, WeChat (1.34 billion).

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Here’s a breakdown of the most popular messaging services by active monthly users:

Rank Messaging Service Number of Active Monthly Users
1 WhatsApp 2 billion
2 WeChat 1.34 billion
3 Facebook Messenger 1.01 billion
4 Telegram 900 million
5 Snapchat 800 million
6 QQ 554 million
7 Discord 200 million

In terms of monthly downloads, WhatsApp Messenger leads the way with a little over 50 million. In Q1 2024, it amassed 115.8 million downloads from Google Play users alone.

Snapchat (41.6 million monthly downloads across Google Play and the Apple Store) and Telegram (36.7 million) make up the rest of the top three.

WhatsApp Business (27.86 million) receives almost half as many downloads as WhatsApp Messenger. Combined (79.05 million), the two WhatsApp apps are downloaded almost twice as much as any other messaging service.

WhatsApp Business is growing at a rapid rate. It boasts over 200 million monthly active users, up from 50 million in 2020.

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Here’s a breakdown of monthly downloads for messaging apps:

Rank Messaging Service Monthly Downloads
1 WhatsApp Messenger 51.19 million
2 Snapchat 41.6 million
3 Telegram 36.7 million
4 WhatsApp Business 27.86 million
5 Facebook Messenger 21.31 million
6 WeChat 6.6 million
7 Viber 3.54 million
8 QQ 3.28 million
9 LINE 3.06 million
10 Signal 2.92 million

No messaging service generates more revenue per month in in-app purchases than Snapchat ($18.07 million).

Together with second-placed LINE ($15.73 million), the two messaging apps generate more in-app revenue ($33.8 million) than the rest of the top 10 messaging apps combined ($27.05 million).

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Here’s a closer look at the top messaging services for in-app purchase revenue:

Rank Messaging Service Monthly In-App Purchase Revenue
1 Snapchat $18.07 million
2 LINE $15.73 million
3 WeChat $6.94 million
4 Telegram $4.86 million
5 QQ $4.74 million
6 KakaoTalk $4.36 million
7 Skype $2.27 million
8 TextMe $1.59 million
9 TextNow $1.39 million
10 Kik $0.9 million

Source: Data Reportal, Business of Apps, Statista, Statista 2

WhatsApp

With 2 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is unrivaled as the top messaging service.

Not every active user is guaranteed to be a unique individual. But the number of monthly users implies that almost 1 in 4 people globally are using WhatsApp (24.7%).

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Looking specifically at over 13s, WhatsApp’s monthly users would account for closer to 1 in 3 people worldwide.

Here’s how WhatsApp users are split by gender:

Gender Proportion of WhatsApp Users
Male 52.3%
Female 47.6%

Worldwide, WhatsApp users average 922.6 app sessions per month. Users in Argentina open the app the most, making 1549.6 visits per month.

In the US, the average number of sessions per month is 233.6. UK users average 363.6 sessions per month.

Here’s how often users in selected countries use WhatsApp:

Country Average user WhatsApp sessions per month
Argentina 1549.6
Mexico 1047.7
Worldwide average 922.6
India 916.6
UK 363.6
US 233.6
Japan 162.6

The US is the leading country in terms of Whats App iOS downloads (4.88 million) with almost 2x more downloads than any other nation in Q1 2024.

Here are the top 10 nations for WhatsApp iOS downloads:

Rank Country WhatsApp iOS Downloads (Q1 2024) WhatsApp iOS Downloads (Q2 2022)
1 US 4.88 million 6.6 million
2 Mexico 2.51 million 1.46 million
3 Brazil 2.14 million 0.93 million
4 India 2.05 million 1.26 million
5 Turkey 1.67 million 0.88 million
6 Indonesia 1.66 million 0.95 million
7 Russia 1.24 million -
8 Germany 0.78 million 0.87 million
=9 UK 0.75 million 1.21 million
=9 France 0.75 million 0.93 million

And here’s a breakdown of WhatsApp downloads via the Google Play Store in the same quarters:

Rank Country WhatsApp Google Play Store Downloads (Q1 2024) WhatsApp Google Play Store Downloads (Q2 2022)
1 India 35.17 million 5.81 million
2 Indonesia 8.51 million 4.49 million
3 Pakistan 7.99 million 1.95 million
4 Brazil 7.58 million 4.53 million
5 Mexico 6.18 million 4.99 million
6 United States 5.26 million 3.72 million
7 Colombia 4.11 million 1.66 million
8 Egypt 4 million -
9 Algeria 3.69 million -
10 Russia 2.97 million 2.1 million

WhatsApp Business has seen significant growth over the past few years.

In 2018, just under 40 million people downloaded WhatsApp Business.

As of 2023, that figure had increased almost 8x, reaching 316.16 million downloads.

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Below, is the number of WhatsApp Business downloads by year:

Year Number of WhatsApp Business Downloads
2018 37.87 million
2019 98.82 million
2020 170.46 million
2021 210.09 million
2022 283.51 million
2023 316.16 million

Source: Data Reportal, Sinch Engage, Airnow, Airnow (2), AppMagic

Facebook Messenger

Despite commanding a significant proportion of the global messaging app market, Facebook Messenger has seen downloads drop from 794.61 million in 2015 to 262.53 million in 2023 – a fall of more than 66%.

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These are the figures for Facebook Messenger downloads since 2015:

Year Facebook Messenger Downloads Change Over Previous Year
2015 794.61 million -
2016 743.03 million ↓ 51.58 million
2017 768.37 million ↑ 25.34 million
2018 782.31 million ↑ 13.94 million
2019 702.09 million ↓ 80.22 million
2020 485.63 million ↓ 216.46 million
2021 336.57 million ↓ 149.06 million
2022 329.28 million ↓ 7.29 million
2023 262.53 million ↓ 66.75 million

In terms of nations, India blows all the others out of the water for the sheer number of Facebook Messenger users. However, these 123.95 million users account for less than 10% of the total population.

By comparison, Vietnam has 56.7 million Facebook Messenger users, making up around 57% of its population.

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Here are the top countries by Facebook Messenger users:

Figures recorded are total potential ad reach, which may not exactly reflect total user base.
Country Facebook Messenger Users Proportion of Population
India 123.95 million 8.7%
Philippines 61.4 million 52.3%
Mexico 60.1 million 46.8%
Brazil 58.55 million 27.1%
Vietnam 56.7 million 57.4%
Thailand 36.7 million 51.1%
Egypt 36.15 million 32.1%
Bangladesh 30.7 million 17.8%
Indonesia 28.3 million 10.2%
UK 27.75 million 41.0%

Source: AppMagic, Data Reportal, Data Reportal (2), Worldometers

Snapchat

The number of daily active users on Snapchat has steadily grown over the last decade.

In fact, since Q1 2014 (46 million) the number of Snapchat users has increased more than 9x (422 million in Q1 2024).

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Here’s a breakdown of active Snapchat users over time:

Quarter, Year Number of Daily Active Snapchat Users North America Europe Rest of World
Q1 2014 46 million 26 million 14 million 6 million
Q2 2014 57 million 30 million 18 million 9 million
Q3 2014 62 million 32 million 20 million 11 million
Q4 2014 71 million 35 million 23 million 13 million
Q1 2015 80 million 38 million 27 million 16 million
Q2 2015 86 million 40 million 29 million 18 million
Q3 2015 94 million 44 million 30 million 20 million
Q4 2015 107 million 48 million 34 million 24 million
Q1 2016 122 million 54 million 39 million 29 million
Q2 2016 143 million 61 million 46 million 36 million
Q3 2016 153 million 65 million 49 million 39 million
Q4 2016 158 million 68 million 52 million 39 million
Q1 2017 166 million 71 million 55 million 40 million
Q2 2017 173 million 75 million 57 million 42 million
Q3 2017 178 million 77 million 57 million 44 million
Q4 2017 187 million 80 million 60 million 47 million
Q1 2018 191 million 81 million 62 million 48 million
Q2 2018 188 million 80 million 61 million 47 million
Q3 2018 186 million 79 million 59 million 47 million
Q4 2018 186 million 79 million 60 million 47 million
Q1 2019 190 million 80 million 61 million 49 million
Q2 2019 203 million 83 million 64 million 56 million
Q3 2019 210 million 84 million 65 million 61 million
Q4 2019 218 million 86 million 67 million 64 million
Q1 2020 229 million 88 million 70 million 71 million
Q2 2020 238 million 90 million 71 million 77 million
Q3 2020 249 million 90 million 72 million 87 million
Q4 2020 265 million 92 million 74 million 99 million
Q1 2021 280 million 93 million 77 million 111 million
Q2 2021 293 million 95 million 78 million 120 million
Q3 2021 306 million 96 million 80 million 130 million
Q4 2021 319 million 97 million 82 million 140 million
Q1 2022 332 million 98 million 84 million 150 million
Q2 2022 347 million 99 million 86 million 162 million
Q3 2022 363 million 100 million 88 million 175 million
Q4 2022 375 million 100 million 92 million 183 million
Q1 2023 383 million 100 million 93 million 190 million
Q2 2023 397 million 101 million 94 million 202 million
Q3 2023 406 million 101 million 95 million 211 million
Q4 2023 414 million 100 million 96 million 218 million
Q1 2024 422 million 100 million 96 million 226 million

India has the most total Snapchat users with over 202 million.

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Combined, India (202.51 million) and the US (106.7 million) have more Snapchat users (309.21 million) than the rest of the top 20 countries put together.

Rank Country Snapchat Audience
1 India 202.51 million
2 US 106.7 million
3 Pakistan 31.93 million
4 France 27.5 million
5 UK 23.06 million
6 Saudi Arabia 22.74 million
7 Germany 19.69 million
8 Iraq 17.95 million
9 Egypt 16.96 million
10 Mexico 15.92 million
11 Nigeria 15.29 million
12 Turkey 15.0 million
13= Russia 7.85 million
13= Australia 7.85 million
15 Algeria 7.34 million
16 Netherlands 6.84 million
17 Brazil 6.62 million
18 Morocco 5.81 million
19 Poland 5.52 million

Sources: Snap Inc., Snap Inc. (2), Data Reportal

Telegram

As of April 2024, there are approximately 900 million Telegram users - that figure accounts for around 11.1% of the world’s population. Only taking into account those aged 16+, that’s 15.1% of the global population.

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Males make up 57.6% of all Telegram users.

Instant messaging app Telegram has seen a steady increase in quarterly downloads over time.

In Q4 2023, Telegram received 114.55 million downloads – more than double Q1 2020’s 55.81 million.

Regionally, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa lead the way with 46.17 million combined downloads in Q4 2023. That figure was closely followed by Asia-Pacific’s total of 44.45 million downloads.

Here’s a look at Telegram’s download figures over time:

Quarter, Year Telegram Downloads Asia-Pacific Europe, the Middle East, and Africa North America and Latin America
Q1 2020 55.81 million 21.99 million 24.5 million 9.32 million
Q2 2020 82.77 million 37.55 million 29.03 million 16.19 million
Q3 2020 88.09 million 42.38 million 26.8 million 18.91 million
Q4 2020 97.83 million 53.82 million 29.92 million 14.09 million
Q1 2021 166.83 million 61.77 million 51.25 million 53.81 million
Q2 2021 79.56 million 35.61 million 26.34 million 17.61 million
Q3 2021 84.77 million 40.16 million 26.7 million 17.91 million
Q4 2021 98.59 million 46.94 million 32.48 million 19.17 million
Q1 2022 98.39 million 42.92 million 35.05 million 20.42 million
Q2 2022 96.82 million 41.45 million 34.79 million 20.58 million
Q3 2022 91.51 million 38.73 million 32.15 million 20.63 million
Q4 2022 94.69 million 40.18 million 34.56 million 19.95 million
Q1 2023 96.88 million 39.39 million 35.25 million 22.24 million
Q2 2023 100.54 million 40.81 million 36.42 million 23.31 million
Q3 2023 113.52 million 46.73 million 42.41 million 24.38 million
Q4 2023 114.55 million 44.45 million 46.17 million 23.93 million

In the US alone, Telegram was downloaded 7.25 million times in Q3 of 2023. Brazil recorded the second-highest number of downloads in the Americas in the same period, with 5.81 million.

Here’s a closer look at Telegram download figures for selected countries in North and South America.

Rank Country Number of downloads (Q3 2023)
1 USA 7.25 million
2 Brazil 5.81 million
3 Mexico 3.65 million
4 Colombia 2.16 million
5= Argentina 1.26 million
5= Peru 1.26 million
7 Chile 0.69 million
8 Canada 0.47 million

The most popular channel category on Telegram is news with 85% of users following a news channel.

At least half of Telegram users also use entertainment (62%), educational (58%), and political (50%) channels.

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Here are the most popular Telegram channel categories:

Rank Telegram Channel Category Popularity
1 News 85%
2 Entertainment 62%
3 Educational 58%
4 Political 50%
5 News from own industry 48%
6 Personal channels of friends 45%
7 Special military operation 36%
8 Bloggers and celebrities 31%
9 Internal channels of companies 19%
10 Brands/companies 17%
11 Products and discounts 16%
12 Channels with job offers 14%
13 Channels for adults 13%
14 Darknet-channels 4%

Source: Data Reportal, Statista, TGStat

WeChat

As of April 2024, WeChat has 1.34 billion monthly users.

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That figure makes up 16.6% of the global population (21.1% when discounting under 13s).

There are slightly more males than females using WeChat with 52.3% of the user base identifying as such.

Source: Data Reportal

Tencent QQ

The latest data shows that there are approximately 554 million monthly active QQ users in Q1 2024, which is a drop of 4 million on the previous quarter.

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That’s 6.8% of the global population or 8.7% if discounting under 13s.

Just under half (48%) of QQ users are female.

Source: Data Reportal

Discord

There are around 200 million monthly active users on Discord.

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Discord users make up 2.5% of the world’s population. If only counting those aged 13+, that figure grows to 3.1%.

Males outnumber females by over 2:1 on Discord (67.3% vs 31.5%).

Source: Data Reportal

How Many People Use Messaging Apps?

More than 3 billion people actively use messaging apps. A previous estimate has predicted that figure could rise to 3.5 billion by 2025.

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Here’s a breakdown of how that figure has changed over time:

Year Messaging App Users Change Over Previous Year
2016 2.11 billion -
2017 2.38 billion +270 million
2018 2.52 billion +140 million
2019 2.81 billion +290 million
2020 3.19 billion +380 million
2021 3.32 billion +130 million

Sources: Business of Apps, Statista

Regional Messaging App Stats

WhatsApp is the leading messaging app in 63 countries including:

  • Brazil
  • Egypt
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Mexico
  • Nigeria
  • Pakistan
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • UK

Facebook Messenger is the most popular messaging app in 16 nations including:

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Sweden
  • US

Telegram is the top messaging app in 10 countries.

Viber is top in 4 countries.

Line is the most popular messaging app in Japan and Thailand.

WeChat is number one in China, KakaoTalk is top in South Korea, and Zalo is the market leader in Vietnam.

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Source: SimilarWeb

Conclusion

Messaging apps continue to go from strength to strength with WhatsApp firmly leading the way.

For more related content, take a look at our other blog posts: Top Social Media Platforms and Top 20 New Social Media Networks.