What you need to know
- There are now over 2 billion active WhatsApp users across the globe.
- WhatsApp is only the second app to have crossed the 2 billion users milestone.
- Facebook had reached the 2 billion active users milestone in June 2017.
Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp today announced that it now has more than two billion active users around the world. Until now, the only app to have crossed the 2 billion users milestone was Facebook.
WhatsApp hit a milestone of 1 billion active users in July 2017. Seven months later, the popular messaging app announced that it had crossed 1.5 billion active monthly users. The app's largest market is India, where it has over 400 million users.
WhatsApp, which started off with the goal of connecting the world privately 11 years back, was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion. In its latest earnings call in late January, Facebook had revealed that around 2.26 billion people use at least one of its family of apps daily, which includes WhatsApp.
In its blog post announcing the achievement, WhatsApp also reiterated its commitment to protecting the privacy of its users with strong end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp says that it will not compromise on security, as that would make its users on its platform less safe.
Facebook is currently working on merging its three popular messaging platforms -- WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. While all three apps will continue to function independently, users will be able to chat with other users across all three platforms, with end-to-end encryption. The Federal Trade Commission, however, doesn't want Facebook to go ahead with its plan.
