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)
Most Popular Messaging Apps
How Many People Use Messaging Apps?
Regional Messaging App Stats

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.

Most Popular Messaging Apps

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).

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).

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

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%).

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.

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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