Facebook Messenger has reached a milestone today: It now has 800 million active users, which is a 100 million shy of its sibling WhatsApp. This was announced by David Marcus, Facebook’s Vice President of Messaging Products via a Facebook Notes entry.
The last time Messenger’s user base was announced officially was in June when it hit the 700 million user mark, which means it has gained a 100 million users in half a year. Marcus took the opportunity to highlight the various functions his team has been able to integrate into Messenger which include voice calling, Businesses on Messenger, sending money, Messenger platform for apps, sharing location, Photo Magic, Facebook M digital assistant and the recent Uber integration. However, he didn’t officially confirm the existence of the Chat SDK which would launch a bots platform in Messenger.
He also shared his vision for Facebook Messenger in 2016 which include the erasure of the traditional phone number, endorsing threaded conversations, a better focus on groups in Messenger and trying new things like the Facebook M project. It is no surprise the company said Messenger is only 1% finished and it is one of the apps I vouch to look out for in 2016.
Just like any other major chatting app, it has experienced a slowdown in user registration thanks to the maturation of the market. This is why its parent company is focused on connecting the unplugged communities in the world which is actually larger than the connected one (4 billion vs 3 billion). We would expect its sibling WhatsApp to announce it hitting the 1 billion users mark in the near future and once again Facebook shows its might by having independent apps that have user bases that rival it.
