Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

WhatsApp’s 1 billion users now make 100 million calls every day

By

whatsapp
WhatsApp is keen to stand out amongst its rivals as more than just a messaging app. In an effort to promote its additional features, it has announced some impressive figures in regard to its voice-calling function, which was rolled out just over a year ago.

The app states that its users across iOS and Android now make 100 million calls a day. WhatsApp did the math and worked out that totals a whopping 1,100 calls a second.

Recommended Videos

The numbers are notable, but hardly surprising. After all, the app boasts 1 billion users, making it the biggest chat platform in the world. It only became a comprehensive communications platform by adding VoIP in April of last year, playing catch up with the likes of Skype, and Viber.

Related

Since its acquisition by Facebook for a staggering $22 billion in 2014, WhatsApp has continued to operate independently under the leadership of co-founder and CE Jan Koum.

Despite dominating the overseas market — in particular India, Brazil, and Africa — WhatsApp is still struggling to gain a foothold in the U.S. where it faces stiff competition from apps including Facebook Messenger, and iMessage. America is high on Koum’s global domination agenda. In fact, he wants everyone who owns a smartphone to use WhatsApp.

“We’re nowhere near that,” Koum told USA Today. “But we hope that over a certain period of time we will get that critical mass.”

WhatsApp is no stranger to mass usage. At present, its users send 42 billion messages, 1.6 billion photos, and 250 million videos each day. So how exactly does Koum plan to overcome the U.S. stumbling block? As always, he’s relying on organic growth.

“As long as our user base continues to grow, at some point it will have critical mass, and at some point it will tip and at some point people will just have to use WhatsApp because their friends are using WhatsApp,” states Koum.

To that end, social media sites such as Facebook may even be aiding his plans. As WhatsApp’s parent company pointed out recently, it is influencing people to connect across the globe like never before. If you end up making a new friend overseas and plan to message them, chances are you’ll need to download WhatsApp.

Download for iOS Download for Android

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Saqib Shah
Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
Facebook Messenger app adds calling, following WhatsApp’s lead
Facebook Messenger app with calling

Meta, Facebook's parent company, is rolling out the Calls tab to the Facebook Messenger app on Android and iOS. The move takes a page out of WhatsApp's playbook, making audio and video calls with friends and family a lot easier for Messenger users.

Not every Messenger user will see the Calls tab in the app immediately. But the lucky users who do will find it located between the Chats and People tabs on the lower bar on the app's screen.

Read more
WhatsApp to end support for older iPhones in coming months
WhatsApp messaging app icon.

If you’re still rocking a decade-old iPhone 5 or 5C and use WhatsApp, you should be aware that the Facebook-owned company will soon be ending support for those devices.

A WhatsApp notification spotted by WhatsApp specialist site WABetaInfo reveals that the company will end support for iOS 10 and iOS 11 in the fall. The iPhone 5 and 5C are unable to deploy iOS 12 and later, which means WhatsApp on those two handsets will stop receiving the latest updates for security, features, and general functionality.

Read more
Emoji reactions hit WhatsApp as Meta fights the competition
Person texting on a smartphone using WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is gaining a slew of new features some would consider overdue for a messaging app of its size. The company is adding support for message reactions, larger file shares, and bigger groups in an update that's slowly rolling out across iOS and Android. Many of these features are present in other apps, notably Telegram, so WhatsApp is under pressure to keep up.

Message reactions are the most noticeable feature for users on a day-to-day basis. They're already present on Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Google Messages, Instagram, and Snapchat, so WhatsApp is a pretty late addition. At the moment only a limited number of reactions are present, but the WhatsApp team notes that a broader range of expressions is coming.

Read more