Facebook Messenger Hits 1.3 billion Monthly Active Users

It has indeed been a steady growth rate for the Facebook Messenger as its active user base rose from 1.2 billion monthly users in April to 1.3 Billion today. But yes, majority of the two billion Facebook users are on Messenger and this is because Facebook forces you to get the Messenger app if you want intend chatting with your friends. That said, Messenger has evolved into something much more than fun with the introduction of chatbots for businesses, voice/video calling in groups, money transfer and major Snapchat features among others.

Messenger, after reaching the 1 billion mark in June 2016, some thought the growth would keep rising however slowly but that didn’t stop the momentum as it took the company nine months to reach the 1.2 billion mark in April and another five months to reach the current figure of 1.3 billion monthly active users.

In a Facebook post the head of Facebook Messenger David Marcus said that “There are now 1.3 billion of you actively communicating and engaging with the people and businesses that matter in your life on Messenger every month. Thank you!”

In the first quarter (Q1) earning reports, it showed that the number of downloads on Android and iOS globally increased about 5.66 percent and that’s from 145.3 million in the Q1 in 2016 to 153.5 million in the Q1 in 2017.

David Marcus also added in the post explaining that they will “continue working hard to make Messenger the best it can be, introducing new masks, filters and reactions for video chat, more suggestions from users and making our virtual personal assistant available in more places around the world, also will roll out more Instant Games more broadly and bringing Messenger Lite to more countries”.

Messenger,  has added lots of wonderful features which has helped attract more daily users by keeping them entertained and glued to the instant messaging platform.  Features such as the stories feature called ‘messenger day’ which allows users post videos and upload pictures which will last for 24 hours maximum and other added features are instant games , live location, emojis , and messenger AI based robot called “M’.

This is however a great news for the company with the tremendous increase experienced this year, and if the growth rate remains steady next year might even be bigger and better.

Perhaps besides forcing its users to use Messenger, the other decision taken by Facebook that may have contributed to growth was allowing non-Facebook users to sign up for Messenger separately.