Facebook made the long-anticipated announcement today. In a blog post, it revealed that Messenger is now used by over 1 billion people every month. They use it for a variety of reasons ranging from simple communication to playing games, interacting with businesses and sending payments to friends.
To celebrate the achievement, Facebook has created a special gift for each user that can be found within the app. The new floating balloon gift can be opened by sending a balloon emoji to a friend. Facebook says it will “add a touch of whimsy and delight” to Messenger conversations, setting a celebratory tone.
“People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about,” said Facebook. “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. Today we are announcing that more than one billion people now use Facebook Messenger every month, making Messenger one of only a handful of apps worldwide that touch so many lives.”
Messenger has gone from strength to strength since Facebook spun it off into its own app. In 2016, it has been growing at a rate of around 100 million active users per quarter. It is the second most popular iOS app ever, after Facebook’s main app, and now the third company product to reach 1 billion users. Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has already reached the achievement.
Facebook is still expanding Messenger to reach even more users. One of its most important attributes is the wide range of features present in the app, ranging from simple location sharing to support for mobile payments, automated bots and integration with other services.
Last month, Facebook unveiled a major redesign of Messenger’s home screen. Designed to get people to engage even more, the new version makes it simpler to start a conversation through the use of four sections. The old list of chronologically ordered conversations is no more, replaced by modular sections for recent chats, favourite friends, people with birthdays and friends who are currently online.
The new design is also built to better support Messenger features that aren’t focused on real people. Messenger Bots, introduced this year, is growing rapidly. Over 18,000 bots have already been created and developer interest in the service is high. Facebook wants you to use Messenger to communicate with companies and help lines as well as your friends and family, making it the go-to destination for online messaging.
“We know that every message is important to you – no matter what you want to say – and our team is committed to building experiences you love and to making all the interactions in your life easier no matter who you are communicating with,” said Facebook. “Thank you for using Messenger and being part of our one-billion-strong community.”
The ever-growing feature list has allowed Messenger to continue to expand at a steady rate. There’s currently no indication that the growth will slow down in the immediate future, although Facebook will find it increasingly difficult to attract new users beyond the 1 billion mark. The service could have over 1.5 billion active users by the end of 2017, almost as high as the 1.6 billion currently using Facebook’s main website.
