Yesterday on Facebook, the company's dedicated messaging app, Facebook Messenger, posted news regarding its recent milestone of surpassing 1 billion monthly active users. As The Next Web pointed out, that's a growth of 200 million users since January, and roughly suggests that 1 out of every 7 members of the population are logging onto Facebook Messenger each month to text with friends and family.

facebook messenger 1 billion
In the message thanking users, the Facebook Messenger team mentioned that the company will be celebrating by debuting the launch of new animated balloons into the chat app. Anyone can try it out by sending someone a traditional balloon emoji within Facebook Messenger to activate the new animation.

On behalf of the entire Messenger team, we'd like to thank the more than 1 billion people who are now using Messenger every month. People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about. They make plans, share dreams, send payments, tell jokes, play games, let their loved ones know they're thinking of them and much, much more. We know that every message is important to you - no matter what you want to say - and we're grateful that you choose to communicate using Messenger.

To put its growing popularity into perspective, Facebook also released some stats related to its messaging service. According to the company, 22 million GIFs are sent every day (approximately 254 per second), and popular holidays saw a noticable uptick in user messaging, with 300 million flowers sent on Mother's Day and 360 valentine-related chats sent on February 14. Among a growing, robust list of sticker packs, the app's most popular remains related to the Angry Birds franchise.


A few of Facebook Messenger's well-received features -- like sticker packs, money payments, and easily-shareable GIFs -- will be making their debut in the new iOS 10 Messages app this fall. With the new SDK debuting in the software update, developers will be allowed to create app extensions that allow users to interact with third-party apps directly within Messages. Apple itself has also announced a few new features coming to its chat app, like new bubble effects, handwritten messages, and fullscreen animated backgrounds, similar to Facebook's balloon easter egg commemorating 1 billion users.

Top Rated Comments

maflynn Avatar
117 months ago
I have to admit, I'm not one of the billion users :eek:
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LordQ Avatar
117 months ago
Ugh, this social network can't die soon enough.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TMRJIJ Avatar
117 months ago
I'm guessing about 40% of those users don't even use the app that they were forced upon....
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Glassed Silver Avatar
117 months ago
And EVERY single one of them loves the app...
The product's popularity is purely based on its greatness, no tricks involved! /s

Glassed Silver:mac
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacBH928 Avatar
117 months ago
I so wish this company would die. Why would any one use this services that makes money by exposing your life to other businesses. There are many apps you can use in replacement for this messenger.

The only app/service they got with no replacement is instagram
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vooke Avatar
117 months ago
The only aspect of Facebook I keep after my 7 months tour of FB one year ago
[doublepost=1469109324][/doublepost]
Now let's calculate how many fake or inactive users there are. How many users now?
Wonder if your skepticism would stay intact if Apple owned FB:rolleyes:
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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