How many whatsapp


How Many WhatsApp Users are there?

Last updated: 14.01.2023

Author: Branka

WhatsApp can be briefly described as a cross-platform instant messaging service used by mobile devices and PCs. It is a cheap alternative to carrier-billed SMS, especially when you want to communicate internationally or as part of a group. WhatsApp allows users to share text, images, video, and voice messages and offer the ability to voice and video call.

As of 2022, WhatsApp has cemented its status as the most popular mobile messenger app worldwide, with an estimated 2 billion monthly active users. This easily outranks the Chinese alternative, WeChat, which has 1.2 billion active users. Even Facebook Messenger boasts just 1.3 billion global users, so it’s clear that WhatsApp is the most in-demand platform for messaging and communication. 

Key takeaways on WhatsApp users
  • WhatsApp is the most popular messaging application around the globe 
  • In April 2022, WhatsApp had approximately 2. 44 billion unique active users worldwide, up 6.4 percent compared to the corresponding month in 2021.
  • In June 2022, mobile instant chat and WhatsApp was the most downloaded mobile messenger app worldwide, with almost 45 million downloads.
  • WhatsApp is available in 180 different countries around the world. 

How many WhatsApp users are there in the world?

As of April 2022, WhatsApp has 2.44 billion active users worldwide. This number is constantly growing as new users sign up to utilize the applications’ many functions daily. As a result of WhatsApp having such a large number of global users, it is subsequently the leading communication channel for smartphone users everywhere! To add to this, WhatsApp is also the 3rd most-used social platform, second only to Facebook (with 2.8 billion users) and YouTube (boasting 2.29 billion users).

How many people are active monthly on WhatsApp?

According to Meta’s latest figures, the WhatsApp application has around 2 billion active monthly users. This starkly contrasts with 2016, when WhatsApp had just 1 billion users. The following statistics show WhatsApp’s active monthly user growth since 2016

February 2016 – 1 billion

January 2017 – 1.2 billion 

July 2017 – 1.3 billion

December 2017 – 1.5 billion 

February 2020 – 2 billion 

July 2021 – 2+ billion

April 2022 – 2+ billion 

The growth of WhatsApp has broken records worldwide, especially in the years since Meta took over the company for a bid of 16 billion dollars. 

How many people use WhatsApp daily?

100 billion messages are exchanged on WhatsApp daily, or around 4.2 billion messages per hour, 69 million per minute, and more than 1.1 million per second! It’s estimated that at least 1 billion people use WhatsApp daily. WhatsApp is the world’s most popular mobile communications application! 

There’s only been one slight dip in the number of people that use or download WhatsApp due to a change in the data processing. Whatsapp harvests data from each user from 9 different sources, including purchases, financial info, and contact info, for app functionality and more. This triggered a loss of 30% in downloads in January 2021, when the application announced that it would give users’ data to its parent company, Meta. 

​Which country has the highest number of WhatsApp users?

India has the highest number of WhatsApp users, accounting for more than 487.5 million WhatsApp users in total. Despite this already large number of Indian WhatsApp users, the amount of users continues to grow in the country by 16.6%.

The number of WhatsApp users in multiple other countries is growing, too. For example, Russia is seeing its WhatsApp numbers increase by 17%, while France is witnessing a growth of 16.6%. 

What percentage of the world uses WhatsApp?

WhatsApp is available in 180 countries around the globe; however, in some locations (such as China), it is unavailable. This dramatically impacts the world’s percentage of users, as China accounts for around 1. 5 billion people. However, there are still nearly 2.5 billion users on WhatsApp around the globe – this accounts for about 33% of the world’s population (DataReportal, 2021). Those who need a mobile messaging app will likely head to WhatsApp as their go-to, especially in developed countries where technology is standard. 

Final Thoughts 

There are many users on WhatsApp, with people making the most of the application from all corners of the world. The growth of WhatsApp is record-breaking, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. These statistics help to represent better how many users are on WhatsApp. 

WhatsApp Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)

WhatsApp is a messaging app for smartphones created in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees, Brian Acton and Jan Koum.

It was Koum who saw the potential of operating through the Apple App Store after purchasing an iPhone in early 2009. The app initially focused on statuses; Koum later revealed that part of his motivation was to stop missing calls while he was the gym.

Users quickly came to use this as an instant messaging service, planting the seed for what the app would become. WhatsApp 2.0 incorporated the messaging function that would come to be the app’s defining feature.

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WhatsApp was unique at the time, outside of Blackberry’s BBM, in providing a free message service that allowed users to log in with their phone number. WhatsApp 2.0 was an instant success, quickly reaching 250,000 active users. This was enough for Acton to convince a circle of fellow ex-Yahoo employees to part with $250,000 in seed funding.

WhatsApp incorporated multimedia messaging later in the same year, and was released on Android the following. From that point, WhatsApp marched to ubiquitous status. By October 2011, one billion messages were being sent per day; by early 2013, WhatsApp could boast 200 million active users.

Facebook clearly saw WhatsApp as a potential threat to its own offering, and therefore flexed its muscles. In February 2014, it moved to acquire WhatsApp for $19 billion, which remains its largest acquisition to date and one of the largest tech acquisitions in history.

This has caused some degree of controversy related to data sharing with the parent company, despite promises of increasing levels of encryption, reportedly end-to-end by 2016. Both founders have left the company based on these concerns.

WhatsApp, however, remains the market leader its sector. Since its simple beginnings, it has added features such as voice calling, video calling, group calls (video and voice), and in early 2018 launched WhatsApp Business. It has also added payments in its two biggest markets, India and Brazil.

Worldwide, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging service in over 100 countries. It has over two billion active users and is one of the few apps to be downloaded over five billion times.

We have collected data and statistics on WhatsApp. Read on below to find out more.

WhatsApp key statistics
  • WhatsApp has over two billion users worldwide, India is the app’s largest market
  • WhatsApp is one of the few apps to be downloaded over five billion times on Android and iOS
  • It is the most popular messaging app in over 100 countries (SimilarWeb)
  • In 2022, it generated $906 million, almost all from the WhatsApp for Business app

Want to learn more about the most popular social apps? Our Social App report includes financials, usage, demographics and benchmarks on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

WhatsApp overview

WhatsApp revenue

WhatsApp is a very small part of Facebook’s overall revenue. It generates almost all of it from WhatsApp for Business, which charges businesses for usage after 1,000 conversations.

WhatsApp annual revenue 2018 to 2022 ($mm)

2018443
2019507
2020632
2021790
2022906

Note: Values are estimated. Sources: Forbes, Social App Report

WhatsApp users

WhatsApp is one of the most used apps in the world and the most popular messaging app in over 100 countries. It reached 2.2 billion active users in 2021.

WhatsApp quarterly users 2012 to 2022 (mm)

WhatsApp annual users 2012 to 2022 (mm)

2012103
2013213
2014409
2015719
20161076
20171323
20181560
20191813
20202102
20212289
20222413

Sources: Company data, Social App Report

WhatsApp users by country

WhatsApp has users in every region, as the most popular messaging platform in the world that’s to be expected. It wasn’t as popular in the US and UK, but that has started to change in recent years.

WhatsApp users by country 2022 (mm)

India390
Brazil148
Indonesia112
United States98
Philippines88
Mexico77
Turkey56
Egypt55
Germany44
Nigeria40
Italy35

Source: eMarketer

WhatsApp cumulative downloads

WhatsApp surpassed five billion cumulative downloads in 2021, one of a shortlist of less than 10 apps.

WhatsApp cumulative downloads 2013 to 2022 (mm)

20130.5
20140.8
20151.2
20162
20172.9
20183.4
20194.3
20204.9
20215.3

Sources: App Annie, Facebook, Sensor Tower

WhatsApp vs competitors: users

Want to learn more about social apps? Check out our Social App Report

WhatsApp FAQ

What years was WhatsApp the most downloaded app globally?

In 2017 and 2019, WhatsApp was the most downloaded app globally, with 924 and 850 million downloads, respectively.

What percentage of internet users use WhatsApp?

Excluding China, 69 percent of internet users use WhatsApp (GlobalWebIndex)

How much activity is there on WhatsApp each day?

Over 100 billion WhatsApp messages are sent and over two billion minutes are spent on WhatsApp voice and video calls per day (Facebook)

How many countries is WhatsApp available in?

WhatsApp is available in 180 countries and in 60 languages

How much did Facebook pay for WhatsApp?

Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014

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How much does WhatsApp weigh and take up RAM

When installing a new messenger, users ask reasonable questions: how much does WhatsApp weigh on a phone, do SMS and calls take up memory space, what to do when the RAM is full. We will give you all the answers right now.

How much RAM does WhatsApp take on Android and iPhone

You use Whatsapp messenger and want to know how much WhatsApp weighs on your phone. It is impossible to give a definite answer. This value depends on the type of device and even on the OS version. The weight will be different on Android, iPhone and Windows background. In addition, it matters how often you communicate in the messenger, whether you save correspondence and media files. They fill the storage (cache) in the memory of your device.

Let's see how much the WhatsApp application for Android version 4.4.4 weighs. In its pure form, it takes only 50 MB plus the amount of cache. Not so much.

If you want to find out how much RAM WhatsApp takes up specifically in your device, follow the simple instructions. By the way, you don’t even have to connect to the Internet for this.

We will try to tell you how to install WhatsApp on a phone in Crimea by following the link.

Do this:

    1. Open the phone settings (usually you need to click the gear icon).
    2. Find the Applications tab in the list and go there.

  1. Find whatsapp and click on the shortcut, you will see all the data on the used memory and find out what is the weight of the messenger cache.

You cannot influence the size of the application itself. But to facilitate storage is a task for the economical user.

To do this, let's see if messages in WhatsApp take up the phone's memory. Certainly they do. But ordinary text messages like SMS and emoticons are almost weightless. They weigh from 2 to 800 bytes. It is necessary not to delete the correspondence for years, so that they gain significant "gravity".

But in WhatsApp you also receive media files: photos, audio messages, videos, gifs, stickers. And they take up a lot of space. For example, a small photo weighs about 80 KB, which is equal to a text of 80,000 characters. What if there are hundreds of such files? Imagine how quickly they fill up the phone's memory.

Let's summarize. It is impossible to say exactly how much one Whatsapp message weighs, because they are too different and can differ in weight by 10, 100 times or more.

Quick setup on Android - what to do first? Let's talk about the link.

If WhatsApp takes up a lot of space: cleaning tips

Many users find out that WhatsApp takes up a lot of space when they decide to update the application. Instead of downloading, the device writes about an error or reports that there is not enough space left. Why this happens, you already know. The memory is overloaded due to the large number of files stored in the cache.

The developers recommend freeing up at least 1 GB of space to update Whatsapp. But what to do if only 400 MB or even less is free? The only way out is to clear the cache. But remember, deleted files cannot be recovered.

There are several options:

    • Delete all accumulated data indiscriminately. To do this, open the phone settings, go to the storage and click "Clear".

  • Copy data to an SD card outside the phone, to a computer or transfer to the cloud.
  • Remove apps you don't use.
  • Clean up whatsapp chats. Click on unnecessary correspondence until the "trash can" icon appears, and delete the whole thing.
  • Delete individual media files that weigh a lot.

While clearing the memory, control how much free space has increased. You may not have to delete all WhatsApp photo or video messages to free up space. If you need to go directly to the page in the application, then click here.

‎App Store: WhatsApp Messenger

Screenshots (iPhone)

Description

WhatsApp from Meta is a free messaging and video calling application. It is used by over two billion people in more than 180 countries. It is simple and reliable, and communication in it is confidential. You can easily stay in touch with family and friends. WhatsApp works without a subscription fee* on mobile devices and computers, even with a weak internet connection.

Confidential communications around the world

Your private messages and calls to friends and family are end-to-end encrypted. Third parties, including WhatsApp, cannot read or listen to them.

Simple and secure connection - instantly

All you need is a phone number (no username needed). You can quickly see the contacts who have WhatsApp and start a conversation.

High quality audio and video calls

Make free* audio and video calls. The number of participants can be up to 8 people. You can make calls even with slow mobile Internet. All you need is a mobile device.

Group chats for communication

Stay in touch with family and friends. Group chats are end-to-end encrypted. Using your mobile device or computer, you can exchange messages, photos, videos, and documents.

Stay connected in real time

Send your location to an individual or group chat. Stop showing it at any time. Or record a voice message to quickly convey information.

Share events via status

With the Status feature, you can share photos, videos, text and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. You choose who will see the posts in the status: all contacts or individual people.

*Data charges may apply. Contact your operator for information.

------------------------------------------------- ---------

If you have any comments or questions, please go to WhatsApp > Settings > Help > Contact us.

Version 23.3.77

• With Picture-in-Picture in iOS, you can now easily multi-task during a WhatsApp call without pausing the video.
• You can now add signatures to documents when you send them.
• The allowed number of characters in the subject and description of groups has been increased.
• You can now create your own avatars and use them as a profile picture or send them as stickers. Go to "Settings" > select the "Avatar" option.
These features will be available soon. Thank you for using WhatsApp!

Ratings and reviews

Ratings: 2.7 million

Review

1) Add a dark theme!
2) It would be cool if there was a display of who is "online" without entering the chat ...
3) Add a function to change messages so that it is fashionable to add or correct errors ...

Everything is fine)

Update the app

Add the function to "edit" a sent message.

Bring back the "contacts" tab!

I give two stars for a completely stupid idea to remove the "contacts" tab and focus on statuses

Developer WhatsApp Inc. indicated that, in accordance with the application's privacy policy, data may be processed as described below. Detailed information is available in the developer's privacy policy.

Related with user data

The following data may be collected that is related to the user's identity:

  • Purchases
  • financial information
  • Geoposition
  • Contact details
  • Contacts
  • User Content
  • Identifiers
  • Usage data
  • Diagnostics

Sensitive data may be used differently depending on your age, features involved, or other factors.


Learn more