Facebook Messenger reaches 1.2 billion monthly active users

Back in July, Facebook Messenger managed to hit the one billion monthly active users mark. The growth from 800 million to one billion was pretty fast - from January 2016 to June 2016. Now, the 1.2 billion barrier is left behind as well.

The impressive growth sustained by Facebook Messenger since April 2014, when it had around 200 million active users should have also included a decrease of the average engagement. According to Facebook Messenger's head David Marcus, this is not the case. Speaking to TechCrunch, he revealed that "we increased engagement massively in terms of number of messages sent per active user. We had double-digit growth percentage-wise."

David Marcus also mentioned that Facebook Messenger is now "a primary communications channel" for many users and we think that, with the demise of Yahoo Messenger, this does not come as a surprise. The number of Facebook Messenger downloads for iOS and Android grew 5.66 percent in the first quarter when compared to the same period of 2016 - from 145.3 million to 153.5 million, reveals Sensor Tower.

These being said, it only remains to see when will Facebook Messenger break the 1.4 billion active users barrier.